He's Just Not That Into You

Rating: 7.2/10

Genre: Romance

Overall value for money and time: 7.5/10

An intertwine of love stories, He's Just Not That Into You deals with both parties in relationships and their perceptions of love, more on the male psyche I feel. I'm not totally agreeable about the content, being a guy myself, but it does touch on some interesting and insightful opinions (I especially like those random interview scenes straight after a point is to be further discussed).

Watching a film with a star-studded cast despite the lack of an outstanding plot was good enough for me. A light-hearted film that will keep you hooked till the very end. There are four main stories in this film; a girl who falls for any guy who picks her up but is clueless about how they really feel about her; a girl who sells advertising but has only been "dating" with guys online; a couple who has been together for 7 years but broke up because the guy had no intention of marrying her; and finally the most complex story with the marriage of a newly wed couple being put to the test with lies and temptations.

I think this film deserves more than what the reviews have rated it. The stories are not as simple as they look, either that or I'm over imagining it. But here's my interpretation of the movie, *spoilers ahead*:

There are great insights into the evolution of online networking websites which act as portals for romance and the "double-edged" invention of the caller ID. The cast made a good point about how it was such a hassle to check all available online portals such as MySpace and emails waiting to hear from a reply from a guy you might potentially spend the rest of your life with, or not. There's a short interview about this girl complaining about the caller ID, about how the guy she was trying to get hold of could just ignore her call by seeing her number flash up on the caller ID.

Though put in a light-hearted manner, it had me thinking about how so many of us depended so much on online portals, not necessarily to find love, but to seemingly "connect" to the world. What was the longest period of time you can stand not checking your emails or even loging onto facebook or msn without feeling uneasy? 2 hours? a day? a week? a month? And I never viewed how caller ID could have a negative effect until now.

Imagine quarrelling with your love ones and when they try to call you back, you look at your phone, know that they are the ones calling, and not pick them up... Now imagine you're the one calling...

Moving away and into the stories proper, the one about the girl obsessing over any guy who picks her up, later gave hope to "fairy tale" endings. Though not common, they still do exist in the world we live in, finding Mr or Mrs Right in the most unpredictable of circumstances.

About the advertising girl, she finally met her Mr Right not via online but actually approaching a guy face to face, tellings us that face to face conversations are still the most sincere. For the one about the married couple, they broke up in the end, her wife being too vent on her husband lying to her over his affair. I mean, I don't see how her husband lying to her about finally quitting smoking tops him coming clean with her about his affair with another woman. It wasn't the later which broke them up but the former, mind you.

That was when I thought, it wasn't so much about the wrongs you commit after marriage, but the inability to keep your promises you made before them that matters. It is the trust in a marriage, and the sexual attraction, crudely put, the sex - as was addressed by the movie, which keeps it going. On another note, it also showed how we can be so fixated on a wrongdoing that we overlook the more important stuffs in life.

Last but not least, my personal favourite, the 7 year couple who broke up cos the guy had no intention of getting married. Right from the start, they appear to be the most miserable, at least the girl appears to be that way. The guy felt like he was just afraid of commitment and came up with an excuse that if two people are in love, it doesnt matter if they're married, all that matters is that the both of them are together.

Throughout the movie, the other stories took a turn for the worse, but the last story showed was consistent throughout. There wasn't another party, it was just them being miserable in each other's absence and how they were there for each other when it mattered. Then, the part about "all that matters is that the both of them are together" flowed back and made more sense.

Out of the countless romantic movies made, there are always those they doesn't appeal to the public, which disappoints. That's the rule. But every once in a while, there are those which might not appeal to others, but is in itself, a gem of its own. That's the exception. And this movie, is the exception.