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Tizzy look at love issues
By Christy Lemire |
February 15, 2009, Sunday
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THE new release "He's Just Not That Into You" isn't exactly a romantic comedy, at least not in the most traditional sense. Yes, the characters work themselves into the same sorts of tizzies over falling in and out of love, or finding love in the first place, but mixed in with the fizziness is an unexpected seriousness, an attempt at injecting realism and even failure.
All those A-listers in the ensemble cast (Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson) are smiling in the movie's posters, but don't let that fool you.
Some heavy stuff falls upon their pretty heads. But while it's admirable that the film from director Ken Kwapis ("The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants") tries to shake up a typically frivolous formula, too many other elements undermine his intentions.
Based on the best-selling advice book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, the script from Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein ("Never Been Kissed") follows nine intertwined characters struggling to make sense of their love lives.
The women, especially Ginnifer Goodwin's hopeless romantic Gigi, tend to be needy and demanding; the men, like Bradley Cooper's cheating Ben, are often caddish and evasive.
And their stories are broken up with title cards taken from the source material's chapters that make "He's Just Not That Into You" feel like episodic television rather than a cohesive whole.
We begin with Gigi obsessing over the blind date she just had with Baltimore real-estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly). Winsome and attractive as she is, she's also annoyingly desperate, to the point where she drives herself and everyone else mad analyzing every "uh" and "er" she exchanges with a guy.
From there, everything else is a downer. Gigi's co-worker, Beth (Aniston), has been living with boyfriend Neil (Ben Affleck) for seven years, but he's never asked her to marry him. Their other colleague, Janine (Jennifer Connelly in a meaty performance), is married to her college sweetheart (Cooper), who's having an affair with yoga instructor Anna (Johansson in full va-va-voom mode).
After more than two hours, what we're left with feels like a Robert Altman movie on Botox. It has some real substance and heft, but it also might be a bit too glossy.
All those A-listers in the ensemble cast (Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson) are smiling in the movie's posters, but don't let that fool you.
Some heavy stuff falls upon their pretty heads. But while it's admirable that the film from director Ken Kwapis ("The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants") tries to shake up a typically frivolous formula, too many other elements undermine his intentions.
Based on the best-selling advice book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, the script from Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein ("Never Been Kissed") follows nine intertwined characters struggling to make sense of their love lives.
The women, especially Ginnifer Goodwin's hopeless romantic Gigi, tend to be needy and demanding; the men, like Bradley Cooper's cheating Ben, are often caddish and evasive.
And their stories are broken up with title cards taken from the source material's chapters that make "He's Just Not That Into You" feel like episodic television rather than a cohesive whole.
We begin with Gigi obsessing over the blind date she just had with Baltimore real-estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly). Winsome and attractive as she is, she's also annoyingly desperate, to the point where she drives herself and everyone else mad analyzing every "uh" and "er" she exchanges with a guy.
From there, everything else is a downer. Gigi's co-worker, Beth (Aniston), has been living with boyfriend Neil (Ben Affleck) for seven years, but he's never asked her to marry him. Their other colleague, Janine (Jennifer Connelly in a meaty performance), is married to her college sweetheart (Cooper), who's having an affair with yoga instructor Anna (Johansson in full va-va-voom mode).
After more than two hours, what we're left with feels like a Robert Altman movie on Botox. It has some real substance and heft, but it also might be a bit too glossy.
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