He's Just Not That Into You (With Your Daily Wake Up Call Book) (Boxset) [REGION 1]

This is a slightly more adult version of Love Actually. For the first hour it's a quite insightful film offering some interesting and often very realistic observations about the dating scene. Justin Long's character in particular has some interesting views on pick up artists.
The film isn't particularly funny but it does touch on some issues that we can all relate to, so there are opportunities for laughs but often it just left me feeling uncomfortable. Unfortunately the last half hour is a bit of a cop out (much like Love Actually) where everyone gets what they deserve. Even though that's an acceptable way to end the film it's just not really in keeping with the mood of what went before. Even so, this is well worth a watch.

Hey, you...stop sitting by the phone waiting for him to call...get up and go watch this movie!

I have to admit, I'm not much of a rom-com watcher. Unlike others of its ilk, though, this flick wisely admits that relationships aren't all rainbows and butterflies, but that they are complicated, confusing, messes that aren't necessarily all sorted out by the time the credits roll.

The premise is simple enough - the film claims:

"If a guy says he'll call and doesn't, he's not in the hospital with a broken number-dialing finger; he's just not that into you".

After a mediocre first date with pre-recession real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly), the film's main protagonist Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), over zealous for date success and naively optimistic as ever, is certain that she has found Mr. Right. But when he doesn't call, her friends (Jennifer Aniston as Beth and Jennifer Connelly as Janine) comfort her with assurances of his interest and case studies of how they knew someone who knew someone in the exact situation - and it worked out for them, of course!

Not that Beth or Janine are living it up in the mansion of romantic bliss, mind you. Aniston's character has been living with Neil (Ben Affleck) for seven years, and for five of the seven, she's been dying to know why he won't pop the question. Wholly against the institution of marriage, though, Neil says that he's totally committed to her and he doesn't need a piece of paper to prove...yadda, yadda, yadda.

Connelly's character Janine on the other hand is married. Happily? Not so much. Ben's (Bradley Cooper) baby blues are soon tempted toward blonder waters when he meets Anna (Scarlet Johansson) at a convenience store one fine evening; how convenient. Too bad he's married, he reasons.

Drew Barrymore easily plays Mary, Anna's friend. Her role is pretty forgettable; but then she did spend most of her time producing the movie.

Justin Long plays Alex, the woman conquering bar owner who decides to school Gigi in the thinking of men, no feelings spared.

For the most part the story lines are tied together in believable ways and it's interesting to watch just how they're all connected - kind of like 6 degrees of separation.

A tough pill to swallow:

Perhaps too realistic at times, "He's Just" exposes the well-intentioned way we women attempt to comfort our spurned friends - not with assurances that despite her many attractive qualities, the guy just isn't interested for one reason or another. Instead, we assure our friends that there is no way he could be uninterested.
Really ladies, if you suspect that your friend is dating a guy who can't see her true worth, before you swell her head with an idealized, irresistible image of herself, please take her to see this movie, and let her do some soul searching. The film will do all the talking for you without patronization.

Be warned:

It's hardly a date movie (unless you want to end the date by breaking up when the scales have dropped from your eyes and you realize that you're more "into" the relationship than your significant other).

Best performances from: Jennifer Connelly as Janine who is more obsessed with the idea that her husband is smoking behind her back than that he is having an affair. Ginnifer Goodwin too has earned her keep. Her embarrassing attempts at securing "the one" are so realistic you will likely find yourself reddening at the all too familiar lengths to which she goes.

Best line from the movie: Listen out for the line the guy uses who ends up with Gigi (won't say who ;-)), it could be the "You complete me" of the 21st century!

Disclaimer:
This film may cause some discomfort. Side effects are generally mild and may include feelings of embarrassment over previous postdate obsession/stalking.

4.5 stars.

This appears to be a love film written by somebody who has absolutely no faith in men. If you doubt this, re-watch the film and see how many of the men in it actually act in a manner that makes them likeable to their girlfriends/wives. I can only think of Justin Long's barman, and for a film that advertises itself as a romantic comedy, that's a pretty bad footing to work from. Having said that, the writing's pretty hard on all of the characters, with even perhaps the most central female role played by Ginnifer Goodwin having astoundingly poor judgement and an almost unrealistic manic air about her. Jennifer Connelly plays bravely against type as a horrendously overstressed wife with a 1 millimetre fuse and a very aggressive temper. Drew Barrymore's character perhaps comes out the best of all the female roles due to portraying a rather sweet sense of longing - a sense of "if only I could meet the right guy" rather than the crazed manic state of mind of half of the cast. Justin Long's character is far from a stereotypical nice guy, but his blatant honesty and lack of pretence, coupled with his natural charm, help make what could have been an objectionable "you're doing this wrong" style 'mentor' role a clever and interesting character. On the whole, the storylines are flimsy, and some of them just aren't memorable: for instance, I know Jennifer Aniston was in this movie, I'm just struggling to remember any of her acting. Many of the storylines are misjudged as well. The Affleck and (Aniston?) storyline ends up feeling almost more like a case of a guy caving under relationship bullying than wanting to compromise. The story Connelly is in is perhaps the worst of the bunch, a very sour bunch of grapes that taints the whole fruit bowl. The writer(s) would have been far better off trying to focus on some of the stronger and more amusing storylines rather than spreading themselves across the entire selection presented here. The scattergun method they chose means the best ones (Goodwin and Long) get shorter running times than they deserved.
Don't misunderstand - this is a good, largely well acted, and rewarding film. But boy is it NOT a 'romantic' comedy in the sense that your faith in love is restored. It's more an examination of how badly overcomplicated and disastrously messed up relationships can get, with a few sparsely spread funny moments.