He's Just Not That Into You

When it came to picking a romcom to look at for valentine’s day, I wasn’t sure what I was going to look at with my critical eye. I thought about actully looking the movie Valentine’s Day, but then I decided why don’t I look at one of the movies in my 20. He’s Just Not That Into You, a statement I live by, but how does the hold up?

He’s Not That Into You (2009) 129 minutes. {Spoilers}

The setup of the movie is complicated, but simple enough. It tells the story of a several different people, who connected by friendship and or dating, how they go about their relationships. As this is an ensemble cast movie, it jumps around with the different characters and what is going on. Our somewhat main character is Gigi (Jenifer Goodwin) is the person most of us have been, at one time or another. She’s the happy go lucky girl, who can act a little crazy when it comes to men. The movie then chronicles her journey of learning, sometimes men are just not into you.

Gigi of course, has very famous looking friends, in the faces of Jennifer’s Aniston and Connelly. Who then are dating and married respectively Ben Affleck and Bradley Copper. One of which is having an affair with Black Widow herself (Scarlett Johansson). Then we have a few other famous faces, just look at the poster. Each with varying amount of screen time. Which I think is the issue with this movie.

As much as I like this movie, on a critical rewatch it could have done a better job balancing the characters and their stories. As I said Gigi gets properly the most screen time, and we learn so much about her. While all the other characters are rushed and shown little glimpses of. I think Drew Barrymore has like 6 scenes in the entire movie. Hey and I think Ben is about on par with the same amount, maybe one or two more. Which is crazy, when this movie is over two hours long. As such, with the characters scrambled all over the place. The story isnt too hard to follow, but it kinda jumps all over the place, and given some character none appearance for long periods of time, it’s very easy to forget about what such and such was doing.

One of the ways the movie could have been better, would have simply following Gigi and that be centre focus of the movie. Which properly was the plan, but once you get some mega celebs on board they had to expand some of the parts. Or another way to go, would be have each couple as their on contained story. With the overlapping character being away to bridge the stories together. However, what we got was a little bit of this and little of that. Which is okay, if you like romcoms and don’t think about it too much. Sadly I do, so I’m somewhat okay with it.

What are some of the things I like about this movie. Well I like that that some of what goes in this movie is reliable if you ever dated. I have watch this movie with a lot of times, and I’ve had people say or  had a similar experience. Lord knows I have. I mean that first date between Gigi and Connor ()is like many a first dates I’ve had. Not knowing if a person is going to get in contact with you after, what you preserved to be a good date.

I do like the explication of the exception and rule. Which is something I apricate, as we’ve all heard this stories, and we’ve all thought the same at some point or another. It nice to explain to people; the story they’ve heard is just an exception, and there are no more exceptions. I do also apricate Jennifer Aniston saying bullshit four times, and all I think is Rachel. There is some good foreshadowing on the broken marriage thing. And I appreciate the rant about how many technologies you have to gotten blanked by, to find out if someone is trying to get in contact with you. But of course of the most dated thing this movie has going for it, is the Myspace refence, because even in 2009 that was dated.

HJNTIY is a okay movie if you like romcoms, famous people and not always happy endings. As some people end up alone. I do like the interviews, and the one with the cast as epilogue. Just a shame enough thought it doesn’t has gays in it, it shame Hollywood wasn’t ready to inject a LGBT+ couple into the mix. Sadly this movie isnt available anywhere on streaming, so catch a copy where you can.

Xo FabEs