REVIEW: He's Just Not That Into You
The Baltimore-set movie of interconnecting story arcs deals with the challenges of reading or misreading human behavior.
Question #1: Are Kevin Connolly and Jennifer Connelly related? If so, poor Kevin. She got all the height and eyebrows. Leaving him, basically, a nearly eyebrowless leprachaun. Well, they're probably not related considerring their names are actually different and not exactly the same even though they sound the same. Very misleading.
Observation #1: Ricky from My So-Called Life is in it, as one of Drew Barrymore's character Mary's three gay friends. So yay! I love Ricky, he was my favorite guy character in that show who wasn't Jordan Catalano. Also, one of the other gay friends was Leonardo Nam, who played Roy in The Perfect Score and I loved him as the stoner guy. Also with ScarJo, so cool.
Observation #2: Filled with mega-star power. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston (who play a couple... It's like Bennifer part three!), ScarJo, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Justin Long, Ginnefer Goodwin (whom I love, she's my favorite wife on Big Love), Bradley Cooper (who is phenomenal at playing the jerk, but I will always remember him as Sydney's BFF on Alias), Kevin Connolly (who, everytime I see him, I automatically want to call him a leprachaun ala Ari Gold), Kris Kristofferson, Busy Phillips (not a mega-star, but she was Audrey on Dawson's Creek, so she's a star in my world) & Sasha Alexander (also not a mega-star but she was Gretchen, Pacey's sister/Dawson's girlfriend on DC, so same rule applies).
So I really liked this movie, because while it was a romantic comedy it wasn't a cliched romcom, like they said in this video. There weren't any real big cliches, keeping true to their word. It was a story about a bunch of different people that are seemingly unconnected but are somehow all connected in one way or another. It's almost like a six degrees of separation thing as well, like that movie Love Actually, which is a romcom with a six degrees kind of feel about it as well.
Gigi (Goodwin) goes out with Conor (Connolly) who is bffs with Alex (Long). But Conor used to date/sleep with Anna (a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424060/">Johansson) and won't call Gigi because he wants to be dating/sleeping with her again, but Anna has met Ben (Cooper) in a grocery store and having an affair with him. But Ben is married to Janine (Connelly) who is best friends with Gigi and Beth (Aniston). Beth is dating Neil (Affleck) and has been for 7 years, but after that long, and a conversation with Gigi after Alex gave her some dating advice, she breaks up with because he doesn't want to get married. And while Ben is having his affair with Anna she's getting advice from her friend Mary (Barrymore) who is having just as bad a luck in love (so honestly, why should she be giving advice?).
In the end Mary and Conor end up together, as do Beth and Neil, and Gigi and Alex. Janine, Ben and Anna all end up alone. Anna leaves Ben when Janine stops by his office to 'work on their marriage' so he stuffs the girlfriend into the closet (after getting ready to have sex on his desk right before his wife knocks on the door) and then has sex with his wife on his office chair. Which I think is all kinds of sleazy. I have to say that Bradley Cooper really does play jerk well.
There's happy endings for some in the end of the this movie, but not for all. While Ben ends up alone, as he should because he's an ass, and Anna ends up alone because she purposely pursued a married man. She knew he was married from the first night they met, but she continued to pursue him in the hope that he would leave his wife for her. He doesn't of course, but she's not a blameless victim of this situation. He said he was married so she calls him for coffee, he says he's married and nothing can happen so she tells him she wants to dry hump him and then strips down to skinny dip in a pool. That's actively bringing on a situation that she should have just left alone. Then she uses poor Conor because he's always nice to her and there for her, but she wants to make something out of nothing and leads him on when she should just cut him loose. But Janine ends up alone, moving out of her beautifully renovated townhouse and into an apartment. Granted its a nice apartment and she's moving on without her jackass of a husband/ex-husband, but its sad that's she's left alone. I guess the silver lining is that she at least got out of a bad marriage before they had kids (btw, Ben is bffs with Neil who lives with Beth who not only works with but is bffs with Gigi and Janine, Ben's wife. And Gigi went out with Conor who is also seeing Anna... such a tangled web we weave).
Here is the imdb page.
Question #1: Are Kevin Connolly and Jennifer Connelly related? If so, poor Kevin. She got all the height and eyebrows. Leaving him, basically, a nearly eyebrowless leprachaun. Well, they're probably not related considerring their names are actually different and not exactly the same even though they sound the same. Very misleading.
Observation #1: Ricky from My So-Called Life is in it, as one of Drew Barrymore's character Mary's three gay friends. So yay! I love Ricky, he was my favorite guy character in that show who wasn't Jordan Catalano. Also, one of the other gay friends was Leonardo Nam, who played Roy in The Perfect Score and I loved him as the stoner guy. Also with ScarJo, so cool.
Observation #2: Filled with mega-star power. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston (who play a couple... It's like Bennifer part three!), ScarJo, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Justin Long, Ginnefer Goodwin (whom I love, she's my favorite wife on Big Love), Bradley Cooper (who is phenomenal at playing the jerk, but I will always remember him as Sydney's BFF on Alias), Kevin Connolly (who, everytime I see him, I automatically want to call him a leprachaun ala Ari Gold), Kris Kristofferson, Busy Phillips (not a mega-star, but she was Audrey on Dawson's Creek, so she's a star in my world) & Sasha Alexander (also not a mega-star but she was Gretchen, Pacey's sister/Dawson's girlfriend on DC, so same rule applies).
So I really liked this movie, because while it was a romantic comedy it wasn't a cliched romcom, like they said in this video. There weren't any real big cliches, keeping true to their word. It was a story about a bunch of different people that are seemingly unconnected but are somehow all connected in one way or another. It's almost like a six degrees of separation thing as well, like that movie Love Actually, which is a romcom with a six degrees kind of feel about it as well.
Gigi (Goodwin) goes out with Conor (Connolly) who is bffs with Alex (Long). But Conor used to date/sleep with Anna (a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424060/">Johansson) and won't call Gigi because he wants to be dating/sleeping with her again, but Anna has met Ben (Cooper) in a grocery store and having an affair with him. But Ben is married to Janine (Connelly) who is best friends with Gigi and Beth (Aniston). Beth is dating Neil (Affleck) and has been for 7 years, but after that long, and a conversation with Gigi after Alex gave her some dating advice, she breaks up with because he doesn't want to get married. And while Ben is having his affair with Anna she's getting advice from her friend Mary (Barrymore) who is having just as bad a luck in love (so honestly, why should she be giving advice?).
In the end Mary and Conor end up together, as do Beth and Neil, and Gigi and Alex. Janine, Ben and Anna all end up alone. Anna leaves Ben when Janine stops by his office to 'work on their marriage' so he stuffs the girlfriend into the closet (after getting ready to have sex on his desk right before his wife knocks on the door) and then has sex with his wife on his office chair. Which I think is all kinds of sleazy. I have to say that Bradley Cooper really does play jerk well.
There's happy endings for some in the end of the this movie, but not for all. While Ben ends up alone, as he should because he's an ass, and Anna ends up alone because she purposely pursued a married man. She knew he was married from the first night they met, but she continued to pursue him in the hope that he would leave his wife for her. He doesn't of course, but she's not a blameless victim of this situation. He said he was married so she calls him for coffee, he says he's married and nothing can happen so she tells him she wants to dry hump him and then strips down to skinny dip in a pool. That's actively bringing on a situation that she should have just left alone. Then she uses poor Conor because he's always nice to her and there for her, but she wants to make something out of nothing and leads him on when she should just cut him loose. But Janine ends up alone, moving out of her beautifully renovated townhouse and into an apartment. Granted its a nice apartment and she's moving on without her jackass of a husband/ex-husband, but its sad that's she's left alone. I guess the silver lining is that she at least got out of a bad marriage before they had kids (btw, Ben is bffs with Neil who lives with Beth who not only works with but is bffs with Gigi and Janine, Ben's wife. And Gigi went out with Conor who is also seeing Anna... such a tangled web we weave).
Here is the imdb page.