He's Just Not That Into You

Halfway through watching this movie at Leominster last Friday afternoon, I said to myself, "Wow, this is a complicated screenplay." A dozen characters woven into multiple stories, a choreographed ballet of narrative---I was impressed.

After I got home, I took out a pen and paper and diagrammed all the story connections in He's Just Not That Into You.

It turns out that it wasn't such a hard feat after all to put the stories together. It just looked hard. But underneath the movie was essentially an ensemble of four (or more) different stories going on at once that could be a prior unconnected to each other.

These stories, all which are set in the hip yuppie neighborhoods of urban Baltimore, were all centered around women in age ranging from their mid-twenties to their forties. They were:

1. A young woman in her late twenties (Ginnifer Goodwin) has trouble forming stable relationships, in part because of her clinginess. After one date, she falls for a real estate agent (Kevin Connolly), and becomes obsessed with him. She meets a friendly male bar owner (Justin Long), who helps enlighten her about relationships. Eventually she falls for him as well.

2. A woman in her late thirties (Jennifer Aniston) has lived her boyfriend for many years and longs to be married to him. He has long made it clear that he doesn't believe in marriage. She must go through the humiliation of being her sister's bridesmaid, before coming to terms with her boyfriend (Ben Affleck) about being married.

3. A woman in her mid twenties (Scarlett Johansson) has an affair with a slightly older man (Bradley Cooper) who has fallen out of love with his wife (Jennifer Connelly). Eventually both women must wake up and break free from the deceptive man who has taken control of their lives.

4. A woman in her mid thirties (Drew Barrymore) can't meet anyone at all, because of the complications of modern technology and social norms. With the help of her gay male friends, she eventually meets someone.

Each of the stories by itself was fairly simple and straightforward, relying heavily on conventions of romance plots in order to provide an abbreviated narrative. What kept the entire movie fresh and interesting was that the four stories were woven together by having various characters appear in multiple stories.

For example, Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Connelly are lead characters in stories #2 and #3 respectively, but they are appear as the supportive co-workers of Ginnifer Goodwin in story #1.

Kevin Connolly's character appears in three of the stories, and basically gets his own story in the process. He is stalked by Ginnifer Goodwin in #1, romantically chases Scarlett Johansson from story #3, and eventually winds up as big part of story #4.

The point is that these stories could have been told without the overlap, but it would not have been nearly as much fun to watch. In a sense, the overlap among the stories was the point of the entire movie. The message, it seems, is that it is a lot easier to cope with life (and to meet romantic partners) when you have a strong social network.

One of the things I drew from the movie was an appreciation for Ginnifer Goodwin as an actress. I had seen her for several seasons on Big Love, but seeing her in a completely different type of character was enlightening.

Overall the movie strongly endorsed the culturally prevalent idea that "good men are hard to find." The men in the movie comes in four types

1. Losers that you fall for (sexy cads)
2. Losers you don't fall for (weak and socially awkward men)
3. Gay men
4. Good men you fall for (the rarest type)

The movie has fun parading various "throwaway men" of category 2 past the women---inferior males who are not worthy of their attention, and who must dismissed out of hand. We know that every woman deserves a happy ending, but these male losers that no woman would want get no such consideration. They don't get to be a part of any of the stories, except as walk-ons, and the butt of jokes. Above all else, this is what makes this a supreme "chick flick."