He's Just Not That Into You

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 6th Feb ‘09
Time : 129 minutes
Director : Ken Kwapis; Writer : Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein based on the book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo; Music : Cliff Eidelman
Starring : Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Connolly, Justin Long, Kris Kristofferson
This movie gives the inside info of the male and female perspectives of relationships and also tries to bust several myths or stereotypes at the same time reinforcing some others. It succeeds in being reasonably funny and a reasonable watch, but has too many characters and lacks depth or true new insights to be anything more than that….

Some of the statements the film makes
• Most men are looking for extra-marital affairs : I will leave you to decide whether its true or not
• Sex frequency declines after marriage : probably a cause of the above, again you need to decide whether it fits your experience of the big ‘M’.
• Women are obsessed with cleaning : There’s a lovely scene where Jennifer Connelly breaks something in rage and while still sniffling goes out of the room and returns with a dust pan. I would list this one as a given.

• Women talk about everything to each other : men usually talk about women (in general), sport and work / money (in detail). Women generally talk about the men in their life, fashion, relationships at work or otherwise (in detail) and the rest is a general blur.
• Men become less attentive after marriage : for women, this is quoted as cause of point two above, which in turn, remember, is cause of point one. This is too delicate a topic for me to even begin. In the context of the movie, lets just assume it to be true and its well depicted via the Jennifer Aniston / Ben Affleck relationship when compared to the spouses of Jennifer’s sister and assorted relatives.

• Women don’t have any clue on how guys really think : Ginnifer Goodwin, the cute as a button (have never understood how this phrase came to be but am going with the flow) central character / narrator gets lessons from Justin Long. Stuff like ‘if a guy wants to meet you, he will call, never call back’ or ‘if a guy says I’m going to be out of town and wont be able to stay in touch, run…’. Needless to say, this is all news to Ginny.



All this is interspersed with some fun and games. Scarlett Johansson skinny dipping in the pool was one of the highlights, as was the blunt, call a spade a spade advice handed out by Justin Long, Drew Barrymore’s descriptions of her dates (including ‘we had coffee yesterday, actually we both video-chatted while sipping coffee’) to her gay colleagues and the story of the woman with three husbands.
The movie itself is broken up into different parts like ‘if the man is not sleeping with you’ or ‘if the woman is not sleeping with you’. As I said above, don’t look for something life changing or deeply insightful, watch the movie in a group, same gender or mixed, either can provoke some debate and you may actually enjoy yourself despite the multiplicity of characters and the sheer predictability of it all.