Review of He's Just Not That Into You (2009) by Chads. — 12 Feb 2009

A relationship movie with multiple narratives and a slew of speaking parts is bound to have an extraneous character or two; somebody who makes the film seem overbloated, and sometimes redundant, every time that person appears on screen.

Arguably, "He's Just Not That Into You" doesn't need Mary(Drew Barrymore), since one single girl looking for love is more than enough, especially if she's a hopeless romantic with just the right amount of self-deprecating charm, like Gigi.

Played by Ginny Goodwin, the relatively unknown black-haired cutie more than holds her own against the big named ensemble cast. The audience knows the drill; the drill can be tiresome, but she and Alex(Justin Long) are the exception to the rule.

The drill is made fun in spite of its predictability, because the flummoxed bartender looks disarmingly candid in his flummoxing state; he's downright dumbfounded by Gigi's ability to unmake him.

The flummoxed bartender's meltdown in front of his bar staff has the ring of truth. Love invents him: to paraphrase the title of Amy Bloom's first novel, or rather, re-invents him. The other wobbly character in this Altmanesque take on modern romance is Conor(Kevin Connoly), who might have been more interesting if the real estate agent's bid to attract prospective gay home buyers coincided with a latent homosexuality that was real, instead of a ploy to drum up business.

It makes cosmic sense who he eventually ends up within the filmic universe of "He's Just Not That Into You".