Film: He’s Just Not That Into You
Director: Ken Kwapis
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin
Rating: 3.5/5
Relatable, immensely funny and a must watch film. Sitting there watching the actors prance about on screen enacting their parts and living those characters has you as an audience relate to all of it.
Trying to read signs of the opposite sex is one thing that most of us if not everyone has suffered. It’s the sort of illness that married or unmarried, everyone catches at some point or another. This film rejoices it and gives you a hysterical glimpse of it.
With all kinds of characters from Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) the sweet girl who wants nothing but a sweet boy who’ll shower her with love and actually call her back when he says, "I’ll call you" or Alex (Justin Long) Gigi’s helper of sorts to Janine (Jennifer Connelley) who can’t stand anyone lying to her and is trying hard to revive the spark in her marriage. Then there’s Anna (Scarlett Johansson) who can’t decide between her perfect match between married man Ben (Bradley Cooper) and zero-fun at disposal, Connor (Kevin Connolly). While Anna suffers from uncertainty Beth (Jennifer Aniston) is in second thoughts after she calls it off with her marriage phobic boyfriend Neil (Ben Affleck).
From raising problems to eventually ending with its solutions, the film traverses the whole field.
Laughing, giggling and constantly finding a part of you in the film is what the film has you do. It’s almost as though the film stems from studying real life characters and including bits, pieces and moments from real life. The best part of the film is that it’s generic and thus no matter who you are and where you are there’s a piece for or of you.
The film at many points reminds one of Love Actually in the manner in which the characters are revealed and explored, but then it takes off into these intricate dives into building up characters and moments that you enjoy. Is the movie predictable? Well yes, in many parts the movie is extremely predictable and that is a bummer.
The film packs in the right amount of humour and drama, just enough for one to take. On the other hand one wonders if connections made in the film could have been stronger. The film at moments feels like a mash of many relatable characters that eventually have no consequence to each other and its like many short episodes strung together to make a film.
Well developed characters are what make this film thoroughly enjoyable. Barring finding familiarity with the characters the beauty of the film lies in the fact that there is a beginning and end to them, complete rather than being superfluous. Having said that, the film does give room for certain characters to flourish while a few other take a back seat, some of whom you’d like to have seen more of and one guesses that stems from the fact that the film has too many characters and moments to explore.
When talking performances it is Goodwin who stands out marvelously, she plays her character to the T. Her smile lights up the screen and her coyness is spectacular. Barrymore is underutilized and the manner her story and character is linked seems rather forced. She fails to stand out as does Aniston who delivers a rather cold act. Affleck on the other hand does great trying to create chemistry with Aniston but alas there’s no connection when it come to Aniston. He delivers a performance you’d remember even after the movie is done, this given the fact that his screen time is rather less. Long as Alex plays his character with ease and is good. Connelly, Connolly and Cooper do a fair job with their roles as well; they act their part with great skill but sadly fail to shine bright. It is Johansson who disappoints, she looks stunning but the performance she puts up is rather plain.
He’s Just Not That Into You is certainly one of the finest romcoms of recent times. There’s no two ways about it, you have to watch this film.
