HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

Well, of course after writing about it, I wanted to see it! Surprised? If you know me--and if you're reading this, I think you know me a l'il bit--then you know that I hate most, if not all, romantic comedies, so personally, I'm not surprised that you're surprised. Well, listen--more surprise!--I actually liked it. And here's why:

FIVE REASONS WHY LETOP5 WAS KIND OF INTO 'HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU':
1. The Cast. Come on, you've got Connelly, Connolly, Cooper, Barrymore, Affleck, Aniston, Goodwin, Long and even that other one...what's her name...Johansson? That's a pretty solid group of familiar faces. Sure, none of them really, independently, appear in movies I want to see...but when you put them all together, my Intrigue Meter picks up on it.

2. The Plot Potential. I wanted, and for the most part (not the whole part) got, a tale telling women to stop it with the antics and calm the frak down. If a movie is focusing on disillusion-ing the over-illusional girl, then I'm all for it. Maybe he was busy, maybe he will be traveling, maybe he did miss your call/lose your number/mean what he said/etc etc. But if he did...and it's a week later...you'd know by now. Good grief.

3. The Unrelatability. That might seem odd. But I was half-hopeful, half-scared that along the course of this film, I would see myself in some of the female characters. Like I would go, "That is so me," and "Dear God in heaven above, I do that exact, revolting thing," and then realise, in the course of two hours at a dingy AMC, that I'm a social pariah. But after seeing the movie...I'm so glad neither of those thoughts ever made their way into my over-sized head. Each woman in this film, except perhaps Scarlett Johansson's cheating ass, is an extreme caricature of how most women really act. Ginnifer Goodwin plays the most ridiculous of all: the unfortunate, needy, obsessively opportunistic, depressingly desperate single girl. Everything she did, I could judge--and judge, I did. So did most of the theatre. She was the extreme case of what a dating woman should strive NOT to be, and it felt pretty good that I couldn't relate to that. That being said, I did hands-down relate to Drew Barrymore's character having a gaggle of gay friends. But no MySpace video chat for me, thank you.

4. The Viewing Experience. As stated above, the movie theatre crowd did not hold back from the "oohs" and "ahhs" and "no, he didn'ts" during my viewing experience. That was pretty cool. I think this is what critics claimed happened during mass viewings of MAMMA MIA, but I wouldn't know, I was too busy puking at the screen to notice. During HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, hardly anyone was too timid about sharing their thoughts about any of these women--and then men they chose or didn't choose. I learned a few things, too, like: (a)cargo pants can be sweet and sexy; (b)few people forgive a cheater; (c)women are more critical of other women than of men; (d)who doesn't love gay friends?; (e)who isn't suspicious of myspace?; (f)I'm not the only one who thinks Justin Long is H-O-T-T, hott.

5. The Men. From Justin "ooh-la-la" Long to Kevin "cuter than cupcakes--and just as tiny" Connolly, it was a good night for man-watching. And usually I don't find Ben Affleck remotely attractive--I've always preferred Casey--but he was endearing in this film, and the relationship between he and Jennifer Aniston's character worked, for once, not because of her believability as an actress, but because of his. He kinda won me over. Furthermore, though he is our douchebag non-grata, from the minute Bradley Cooper stepped on screen, women definitely went into "hubba hubba" mode. And with Scarlett Johanssen rehashing her role as "transient femme fatale with marriage-destroying abilities" (re: MATCH POINT, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, IN GOOD COMPANY, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL...really, she's a one-trick poney), and all the other women acting three types of crazy, it was nice to be anchored in by some good guys. Congrats, gentleman: a romantic comedy that doesn't make you look like unrealistic, emasculated weenies.

The final message of HJNTIY is a little weak, I'll admit--"Keep hoping, and eventually you'll find that special someone?" Please. Puh-leeeze.--but the path to that message was a pretty funny ride. Now I won't say I've been converted to the lovey-dovey movie fold, but hey, you can't always judge a book by its cover. Though, apparently, you can judge a man by his lack of a phone call. Noted.

plot: Both sexes drown in mixed signals.
thought: Does drowning usually finish well?
in five: 3.5/5

get into it: http://www.hesjustnotthatintoyoumovie.com/