Plot: What’s it about?
When you think about it, it’s amazing. What’s the “it” I’m referring to you might ask? One line of dialogue literally changed a few people’s lives. That’s the story behind “He’s Just Not That Into You” and for those not familiar with the history behind this movie; allow me to provide a synopsis. For those that remember “Sex and the City” (the core audience for this film, by the way) there was an episode that aired titled”Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little,”. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) invites her boyfriend Jack (Ron Livingston) to join her friends for lunch. He then explains to them how a man’s mind works. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) in particular wants to know about the mixed messages she often receives. Jack informs her there are no mixed messages (or secret signals or any other code). If a man declines an invitation for any reason, it really means, “He’s Just Not That Into You.” This new enlightenment frees Miranda from second-guessing all the men in her life, which works fine until she gets a legitimate rejection from a man that has nothing to do with his not being into her, but with what he ate for lunch. And there you have it. One line eventually became a best-selling book and the movie was aptly-timed for a Valentine’s Day release. Amazing.
The film follows the lives of several twenty and thirty-something’s in Baltimore. There’s no real “main” character, per se though some are focused on more than others. Rather than try to talk about all of the plots, I’ll just describe the main characters. Everything and everyone is loosely-related and seems to know a friend of a friend and so forth. So here we go:
Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) – The perpetual romantic thinking every date could be Mr. Right. She overanalyzes the verbal and non-verbal things a man says and does. She works at a trendy magazine with Beth (Jennifer Aniston) and Janine (Jennifer Connelley).
Beth – Has dated Neil (Ben Affleck) for seven years. They love each other very much, but Neil is opposed to marriage. She kicks Neil out and he’s forced to live on his boat.
Janine – Married to Ben (Bradley Cooper) who bumps into Anna (Scarlett Johansson) at a supermarket. He’s contemplating having an affair with her, though his mind says no his body says…
Anna – Psuedo-plutonic friend of Conor (Kevin Connolloy) who’s a realtor and has had his ad placed on the gay page by Mary (Drew Barrymore) giving him an all-new client base.
Alex (Justin Long) – The manager of a bar who becomes Gigi’s voice of reason through her dating woes. Roomate/friend of Conor.
And there you have it. It’s like an watered-down Americanized version of “Love Actually” and while both films have their fans, I’m more keen on this version. I live in Maryland and actually dated a girl in Baltimore for a time, so I can relate to the film a bit more than others. I have to say that it’s pretty accurate too, with scenes of the Domino sugar factory visible and even down to the 410 area code on the newspaper ads. While the movie didn’t do quite as well as expected, I’m sure it’ll become a staple date movie just like “When Harry Met Sally”, “Sleepless in Seattle” or “Love Actually”. And, naturally, as a man I really can’t relate to the female perspective but I’m probably guilty of some of the things that the men do. Yes, the men in this film are characterized as lying, selfish and manipulators (except one) and the women as mindless love-crazed hopefuls that are always wishing for the best. I’d actually be interested in reading the book, but for the time being the movie is all I have time for. Love it or hate it, it’s hard to deny that one small line of dialogue did make a lasting impression on pop culture.
Video: How does it look?
As expected “He’s Just Not That Into You” looks just as I thought it would, glossy and colorful. For those that know Baltimore, this isn’t an accurate representation of it. There aren’t these lavish, quaint little caf?’s on every street corner and not everyone dresses in designer clothes. The interiors are very warm with bright colors adorning the walls and so forth. Detail is great and though the stars of this film have no noticeable flaws physically, if they did we’d be able to see them. I caught a little bit of noise in some of the background scenes (namely the sky) that detracted from the score a bit, but on the whole it’s a very warm transfer that is what we’d expect of a new to Blu-ray film.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby TrueHD track didn’t exactly light up the speakers and it wasn’t supposed to. This is about as dialogue-driven as they come with every character gabbing about this and that in essentially every scene. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for the audio to really make a statement, though some of the songs played during the film do sound above average. There’s not a whole lot to say here, I’ve said it hundreds of times before and I’ll say it again ? it serves its purpose and nothing more.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There isn’t a lot of substance to the included features. We get an “update” on the characters since the movie ended which is essentially some in-character interviews with the main groups as they dish on how life has changed and what the consequences of their actions are. Obviously these were done on set as many of the people were wearing the same wardrobe they were in the film. We do get a pretty nifty featurette that dissects the telephone scene between Gigi and Alex. I take it for granted about all the thought that goes into the editing and the work involved on how to block a scene, this shows us how though. And lastly, as we might expect, we get some interviews with the screenwriters as they dish on the history of the book and how everything came to be. There are five deleted scenes included as well with optional director’s commentary. A second disc that contains a digital copy of the movie is also included.
