These days Hollywood will take any proven product and make it into a movie. Based on the self-help book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, He's Just Not That Into You has been adapted for the screen by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein. Directed by Ken Kwapis (License to Wed, TV's The Office), HJNTIY features a massive ensemble cast of stars and starlets including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, Justin Long, and Kevin Connolly. Drew Barrymore does double duty, starring and producing for her Flower Films banner.
HJNTIY is the kind of estrogen-charged feature film most men will be dreading this Friday. Just remember that Friday the 13th comes out next week, so you'll have plenty of time to wash off all the cutesy with Jason's bloody machete next weekend. Fair is fair, right, so suck it up fellas.
Thankfully, this one's not all bad, generally fun-spirited, and mostly entertaining. The nine different storylines range from compelling character pieces of strong dialogue (Affleck and Aniston) to forgettable (Barrymore) to positively cringe-inducing (Connolly and Johansson).
The biggest problem is the movie is simply too long for the kind of breezy, fun-spirited entertainment it's meant to be. At a running time of 109 minutes, this is the Magnolia of date movies and, much like that movie, suffers from trying to cram too much into a single feature. Some dialogue is cheesy and pretty over-the-top and some is deadly accurate. While most of us will be too embarrassed to admit it, anyone who's spent much time on the dating scene will probably slink in their chairs a bit when they recognize an embarrassing moment or two from their own dating adventures.
Of course, the other major issue with taking your date out to see HJNTIY is that it may prompt post-viewing conversations that are best avoided. If you're planning to take your date to see this one, you better have enough confidence in your relationship to withstand the barrage of relationship quiz questions that are sure to follow.
ReelzChannel Rating: 