He's Just Not That Into You

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language.
Runtime: 129 mins.
Director: Ken Kwapis
Writer: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connelly
Tagline: Are you the exception...or the rule?
Genre: Comedy
Memorable Quote: "How stupid is it that a girl has to wait for a guy's call anyway, right?"
Release Date: February 6, 2009
DVD Release Date: June 2, 2009
Distributor: New Line Home Video

There are chick-flicks that women will go to â"with just the girls", and then there are chick-flicks where they will drag us (men) along just to see the look on our faces. This is one such film falling head first into the latter category. Before I go any further, let's just evaluate how the so called â"chick-flick" has evolved over the years. Equipped with a box of Kleenex, films like Sweet November and A Walk to Remember, are all about undying love and makes for bitter-sweet tear duct cleansing of sorts: girl meets boy, boy likes girl but girl ignores boy. Girl has a change of heart, only to learn boy is dying; or vice versa. Then there are comedies made specifically for chicks. Ask any guy who actually saw Legally Blonde and Clueless, and he will tell you exactly what he thinks about those films; except for some eye candy, absolutely clueless. Putting two and two together, we arrive at a genre in its own right known as romantic-comedies or â"date movies", where majority of the audience are still women, save for a few guys strategically concealing machoism in favor of an alternative means of scoring, so to speak. As such, When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle started a whole new breed of rom-coms, not just for it's â"happily ever after" feel good endings, but for the curiosity it was attracting from male viewers. Sparked by tell-tale signs of where a relationship is headed, John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus opened a big can of curiosity that to date bases most of the fundamental follies of dating and is loosely integrated into romantic-comedies. So here we have it, Love Stinks, How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days, Buying the Cow, Hitch and hundreds of similar films was and is still enjoyed by a major bulk of the male audience simply because it takes two to tango.

In essence, this is exactly what works for He's Just Not That Into You. The title is a statement that begs a question from either side of the dating game. How do you catch and keep Mr. or Ms Right? This question is answered by the misadventures of nine individuals seeking the perfect partner. And the players are: a desperate woman who can't take â"no" for an answer, a desperate man who can't take â"no" for an answer, a married man caught between his suspicious wife and a steaming hot mistress, a dating advisor who is about to eats his own words, live-ins considering a walk down the aisle, and a straight woman influenced by her gay friends.

Adapted from the book by the same name and inspired from a dialogue in Sex and the City, director Ken Kwapis spins a tale that comes across as not too contrived. Sure, there are some stereotypical moments etched into the plot, yet there are abundant plausible characters closely depicting any Tom, Dick and Harriet struggling to get hitched or staying that way. Unique to this film and unlike other romantic comedies, is the absence of protagonists at the centre of the plot. Rather, the merry mess of a group of individuals entwined by the proximity associated from socializing. Giving life to these individuals is a plethora of A-list actors unlike anything seen in a rom-com. Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin (where was Lopez and Garner?), Scarlet Johansson opposite Bradley Cooper, Justin Long, Kevin Connolly and Ben Affleck play the main characters with cameos from Kris Kristofferson, co-producer Drew Barrymore and an unaccredited short take featuring Luis Guzman.

As a light hearted comedy, Kwapis sticks within the norms while avoiding the temptation of crude sexual humor, nudity, and tasteless under the belt jokes. If this is a parody on the pros and cons of relationships as experienced by twenty to thirty something year olds, then it hits the mark spot on with liberal dosages of heart breaks and heart flips. And by this, the gender specific term â"chick-flick" will hopefully resonate into something equally enjoyable for both sexes.