He's Just Not That Into You

In one particularly awkward scene of the Valentine’s Day chick flick, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) sits on a sofa with her friend, Alex (Justin Long). Alex, yawning, announces that he is going to retire to bed, and Gigi immediately follows up with, “Is that an invitation?”

Such cringe-inducing moments are not rare in the movie; however, unlike the typical chick flick, the film uses these episodes to translate genuine sentiment. Despite the ever-present threat of takeover by cliché, the film goes beyond one-dimensional characters and scenarios and into surprisingly complex psychological territory.

Based on the book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, “He’s Just Not That Into You” is both a close adaptation and wide interpretation of its original text. At its start, the film stays faithful to the book in both spirit and form, using endearing but direct humor and exaggerated cases to prove the authors’ points. Gigi is meant to represent the universal female voice—constantly worrying, obsessing, overanalyzing, and most of all, making excuses for men. Alex is the suave manager of a bar, who coolly rejects girls on a regular basis but nevertheless decides to take Gigi under his wing. He becomes the voice of co-author Greg Behrendt, talking women down from their high strung obsessions and telling them the painful, but necessary, truth: “If a guy doesn’t seem like he gives a shit, then he genuinely doesn’t give a shit.”

On the other hand, “He’s Just Not That Into You” differs from the book in that it centers on the relationships of nine individuals rather than random cases or scenarios. The all-star cast members take on uncharacteristic roles and do better than expected. The typically nerdy Long is convincing as a wise and charming dating guru; Scarlett Johansson deftly handles her comedic moments just as well as her seductive ones; and the dynamic between Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck—a couple who’ve cohabitated for seven years—is more believable than we see in most comedies. The characters are all loosely connected to each other, and the plots weave in and out rapidly throughout the film. This can be distracting, but it also amplifies the surprise during some of even the most predictable plot points.

What “He’s Just Not That Into You” does best is preserve and enrich the various voices from the book. It bares women’s insecurities without sacrificing a sense of empowerment. When Alex tells Gigi to stop seeing men who are clearly not interested in her, she replies in a small voice, “So I’m just supposed to run away from every guy that doesn’t like me?...Then there’ll be nobody left.”

But despite her initial helplessness, Gigi avoids degenerating into sheer cynicism, and instead asserts her right to hope for love. Further, the film does not shy away from the more painful and awkward sides of relationships. In fact, watching people play out these relationships on screen, rather than reading about them in a book, makes the tension both more palpable and more relatable.

While this may not be the ideal Valentine’s Day film to see with a significant other, “He’s Just Not That Into You” gives the boys a voice too. Not all the film’s men are vindicated or excused, nor are all its women victimized; thus, the film achieves a more balanced view of the sexes than its textual counterpart.

For a film based on such a simple concept—following several relationships with the most clichéd and common problems—“He’s Just Not That Into You” is surprisingly smart, touching, funny, and real. There are moments of genuine laugh-out-loud hilarity, and the film achieves it without resorting to crude jokes about sex or sexism.

Even better, it resists the urge to end all of the subplots in happiness. Some of the characters change; some do not. Some relationships end predictably; the others take you so much by surprise that you may find yourself a little teary. Most of all, squeezed in amongst all the exaggerated lines—“Myspace is the new booty call,” says Drew Barrymore’s gay co-worker—there is a daring directness with which this film aims to reflect reality—even if it means putting Jennifer Aniston in a role where she is laughed at for being unmarried.

—Staff writer Jenny J. Lee can be reached at jhlee@fas.harvard.edu.