"He's Just Not That Into You," in movie theaters this weekend, plays in moments like an instructional film, with characters speaking in boxy, formulaic sentences meant to assure or warn women of how they can truly read the men in their lives. It carries itself like a public service announcement: smug and certain and pedantic.
But in this case, even more important than the words is who's saying them. Here, the women being toyed with are among Hollywood's most radiant: Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, Ginnifer Goodwin. And who are the men who can bring these attractive, confident, unattainable women to their knees? Ben Affleck (the least heartthrobby heartthrob of the last decade), Bradley Cooper (really?), Kevin Connolly (a sidekick) and Justin Long (The Mac guy, for heaven's sake!).
Turns out, shockingly, that this isn't at all a movie about empowering women to take control of their emotional lives or providing them with tools to improve their situations. Instead, it's a covert brainwashing, the result of which is to absolve these men -- all men -- of their romantic obligations. The subtext of the film is often astonishingly angry -- women are hapless, clueless, sometimes worthless.
Forget post-feminism -- this is feminism denial.
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Subtle differences
Initially, it appears that "Greg Behrendt's Wake Up Call" (SoapNet, 10 p.m. Thursdays), a sort-of "Extreme Makeover" for crumbling relationships, is cut from the same cloth. Behrendt is, with Liz Tuccillo, the author of "He's Just Not That Into You," the 2004 book on which the film is based, and a former writer on "Sex and the City" -- he coined the phrase that first entered the popular consciousness in a Season 6 episode. On this show (originally picked up by ABC but never aired) he cuts an appealingly dopey figure: spiky sandy blond hair, a wallet chain, dude duds. In other words, he's the Guy Fieri of dating advice. (This is Behrendt's second stab at television, after the failed talk show "The Greg Behrendt Show" in 2006.)
The first two episodes of its six-episode run -- the finale is this week -- suggested a "He's Just Not That Into You" playbook at work. In the second episode, the insecure Justin is fearful that his girlfriend, Sophia, doesn't want to commit, and she is concerned that he's unreasonably needy.
