Into the current silly season at the cinema, when moviegoers' appetite for something light, quick and easy to consume seems to be boundless -- "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" anyone? -- comes a sweet confection of a romantic comedy, "He's Just Not That Into You."
Well, to be more precise, "He's Just Not" is a sort of anti-romantic romantic comedy; instead of all the weepy, emotional, will-they-ever-get-together scenes, the filmmakers have opted instead to explain why they won't. The CliffsNotes answer? Because in most cases, he (or she) is just not that into you, a phrase that will be implied many times over the film's two-plus hours (which sounds like a lot but actually comes down to about seven minutes per star).
Based on Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's popular relationship advice book, the movie begins its story on a playground with a 6-year-old girl being socked in the arm by a 6-year-old boy, with Ginnifer Goodwin, one of the many, many actors in this star-driven ensemble cast, providing the narration. Drying her daughter's tears, mom explains that the boy hit her because he likes her. Thus the seed is sown -- and from this day forth, for the rest of her life, she is doomed to reinterpret every interaction with any boy she meets. She'll search for the hidden meaning in everything he says, she'll pile up excuses like unread issues of the New Yorker to explain away every dating slight.
The "she" is, of course, metaphorically intended to represent all females and not just the urban professional perfect ones who populate this movie. We're given to understand it's a universal problem as the question echoes (and the camera pans) around the world from the skyscrapers of Tokyo to thatched huts in Africa and back around to Baltimore, which is where this story is set.
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Star-studded cast
In addition to Goodwin, the film's cast of thousands includes Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, who is also an executive producer, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Justin Long and Kevin Connolly in multiple, interlocking, "here's why what I said either does, or doesn't, mean what I said" stories. With them in hand, director Ken Kwapis proceeds to walk us gently down that rocky road of love.
