He's Just Not that Into You (2009)

director: Ken Kwapis

writers: Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccilo, Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein

starring: Justiin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Connolly, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlet Johanssen, Bradley Cooper

genre: Comedy. Romance







Romantic comedies let say haven’t been what they used to be for many reasons. Classic actors are no longer in the genre like Hugh Grant. People are not able to come up with original and funny ideas like in you’ve got Mail. And then we have others changing the genre to their own ways with films like Knocked Up which are valid addition to the genre. Instead “He’s Just not that Into You” has some old classic traits of the older films but still instilling something new with a more realistic view of relationships than films like Sex and the City (film) portray.



Here we follow many characters who have interconnecting stories. All of them have different problems but all are connected by their search of love or hope of keeping it. There is Neil (Ben Affleck) who doesn’t believe in marriage and Beth (Jennifer Anniston) on the other that believes it’s very important. Than Alex (Justin Long) the playboy who hasn’t yet realized how miserable he is, his friend Connor (Kevin Connelly) who plays around and still wants the special girl Anna (Scarlet Johansson) who wants a married man Ben (Bradley Cooper) who kind of wants her now and his wife Janine (Jennifer Connolly) is trying to keep him. And I still haven’t mentioned another two characters that are important. By that I mean there are a lot of characters that the story pays too much attention too.



This film is too small in length to handle all the characters and sometimes focuses on characters that are not so interesting due to their non development because of the small length. Films with large casts are hard to handle. Dramas like Magnolia handle the shortcoming with long length great characterizations and overreaching story arcs, action films do it by great action/special effects sequences He’s Just not that into you doesn’t quite do it with its mediocre romance, ok jokes and immense overreaching rhetorical message that its just preaching to the choir on some things. For example women love the idea of marriage. Thats why there is the Jennifer Aniston character. Why was there no free thinking woman who dosent believe in marriage instead of a man. Think about it.



What I couldn’t understand is the miss match in casting. There is the older generation of Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck then you have the younger generation with Justin Long and Scarlet Johansson. And I say this because the most interesting stories were of the younger generation and they should have gotten more time. Drew Barrymore is in the movie for only 10 minutes her addition is useless to the overall film. Ten minutes removed of her character could have gone to a more promising character. The older/young generation is not the only problem. The other is that I don’t feel chemistry between some of the actors. The Aniston/Affleck relationship felt weird as these two people don’t quite play to each others beats.



The interesting thing the film does is that it does deal with many occurring factors of relationships. Failed marriages, cheating, being a playboy it deals with many of them. It does it all in a respectable fashion with no extremes to it. It’s not your classic runaway bride plot were plausibility has gone out of the window. But even with the realism it does have the stupidity in areas. Of how sometimes women get hysterical, needy and blame the man for everything and how much of you know what a guy can be with his cheating mentality of never getting caught.



By the end of the film everything settles in a happy or sad manner for the characters. The movie is good instance of the more realistic turn the classic romantic comedy from Hollywood can go towards. But the lack of humor and the misplacement in character development due to time constraints make this film much less than it could be.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul