DIRECTED BY KEN KWAPIS
STARRING: BEN AFFLECK, JENNNIFER ANISTON, GINNIFER GOODWIN, JUSTIN LONG, JENNIFER CONNELLY, SCARLETT JOHANSSON, BRADLEY COOPER, KEVIN CONNOLLY and DREW BARRYMORE
Not to be mistaken, I wrote an earlier review which I thought complimented the film for more than its worth. I do not shout a denial with this one, there’s still ample scope for amusement, for knowing smiles with tongue-in-cheek, I most definitely still dig the role that Ben Affleck plays in this film, the role of the ideal man-for-all-occasions for he’d rise up to the same. But then again, I don’t think the film says anything more than what we already know, and that doesn’t mean I ask it to defy logic – I guess I just don’t want it to re-emphasize with an ownership claim. We’re all carpenters, they’ve made no better chair just because they’re putting it on a pedestal for everyone to see and that doesn’t mean I deprive them of their right to make the movie, I’m just a little stronger in reserving mine to like it or not.
‘He’s just not that into you
’ is like a collection of six or maybe seven different stories that are linked together to make the film look integral than to serve any other purpose. ‘Paris Je Taime
’ showed a certain subtlety in letting its episodes stay episodes, while ‘New York, I love you
’ tried a little harder to push the fragments together, something characteristic of the American tendency to keep it whole than to like it in splits. This film, in turn, tries to jam-pack it and call it a picture, except there are crisscrosses and the sellotape is only too visible – it has the mischievousness of a child without the ability to remain delightful. It’s very unfortunate though, for while the film was likeable in bits and pieces, the inter-connections made it impossible to be liked so. It’s like a package deal, take it or leave it – an expensive tradeoff for precious little in return.
’ is like a collection of six or maybe seven different stories that are linked together to make the film look integral than to serve any other purpose. ‘Paris Je Taime’ showed a certain subtlety in letting its episodes stay episodes, while ‘New York, I love you’ tried a little harder to push the fragments together, something characteristic of the American tendency to keep it whole than to like it in splits. This film, in turn, tries to jam-pack it and call it a picture, except there are crisscrosses and the sellotape is only too visible – it has the mischievousness of a child without the ability to remain delightful. It’s very unfortunate though, for while the film was likeable in bits and pieces, the inter-connections made it impossible to be liked so. It’s like a package deal, take it or leave it – an expensive tradeoff for precious little in return.The characters didn’t help my purpose either. Okay, fine – a couple of them did, but not entirely. Drew Barrymore throws some jokes on herself in a sort of extended cameo as the amicable Mary, I’ve already mentioned Mr. Affleck at the top of my list. Now, I have no idea as to how they’re friends with the scorching hot, excessively understanding (or someone who thinks she is) and lesson-learning Anna (played by Scarlett Johansson, who plays mediator yet again after a successful exploit in Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona
’ – the role is not too different either) and her wife-cheating lover Ben (Bradley Cooper, who shamelessly suits his role as well) who simply loves to play the in-out game with the both of them (you can assume the pun, for there is a devastating sequence to prove my point!). Same goes with other matchups – Alex (Justin Long) and Conor (Kevin Connolly) fit as buddies, there’s chemistry, Ben and Neil are a mismatch, as are Mary and Anna. Ultimately it’s the self-assumed rejected trio of Janine, the victim (Jennifer Connelly), Beth, the wannabe (Jennifer Aniston) and Gigi, the Quixote (Ginnifer Goodwin) that stands out.
’ – the role is not too different either) and her wife-cheating lover Ben (Bradley Cooper, who shamelessly suits his role as well) who simply loves to play the in-out game with the both of them (you can assume the pun, for there is a devastating sequence to prove my point!). Same goes with other matchups – Alex (Justin Long) and Conor (Kevin Connolly) fit as buddies, there’s chemistry, Ben and Neil are a mismatch, as are Mary and Anna. Ultimately it’s the self-assumed rejected trio of Janine, the victim (Jennifer Connelly), Beth, the wannabe (Jennifer Aniston) and Gigi, the Quixote (Ginnifer Goodwin) that stands out. But that does not mean ‘He’s just not that into you’ is badly cast – it’s quite the opposite, in fact. The actors are a snug fit into their roles and there’s an immense amount of potential. The fault is with the characters who do next-to-nothing to endear. We see sparkles, very brief sparkles of true impact, like that of Janine cleaning the room she just wrecked, that of Neil cawing his delight on watching Beth blossom as he asks her to marry him, of Mary as she wise-cracks at the departmental store and a sliver of Anna as she finally rejects Conor, her emotional dump. Still, the film is nothing but a fair drawing of a familiar picture, as obvious as the fact that it was co-authored by man and woman. As obvious as the fact that it’s badly titled ('How Men and Women think they know everything about each other till they're proven they're wrong or maybe not' seems too long even in abbreviations, and might not even work); as obvious as the fact that I am still on two minds about liking it.
Mary pays a pittance to Conor, thus tying the one loose end secure because - heck, she's the one that's behind the whole thing. Look at it this way - I'd love the film if I produced it, I'd be in for a commitment.
Or maybe not.
Eh, I don't know.
(2009): Here’s a film that’s as innocent as it’s not. Spike Jonze’s latest offering might have been an exhilarating kick-start for Max Records, but it still surprised me with the amount of impact it could pack into a picture-book. Neither instructions to the brat, nor guidelines for the ones who manage him, ‘Where the wild things are’ balances an unbelievable level of innocence in a hefty lot of subject matter in a package that’s water-tight secure. Also commendable is the lush soundtrack by American musician Karen O.
(2009): If this film is feminist, then it would be my second inclusion to the list, for which I wouldn’t apologize. Sasha Grey takes acting to levels it hasn’t seen before by the merest act of bringing it down to what she is and nothing more, and director Steven Soderbergh nails his position in the integrity of American cinema. In what could be branded as the most faithful American allusion of the decade, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ takes one through what’s inarguably the most mysterious dimension on the face of the earth: the mind of a woman. And what a woman, that too!
(2009): Inter-ethnic complexities being his recurring theme, Ramin Bahrani (‘
’, ‘
’) lives up to his name of being hailed as ‘THE American director of the decade’ by Roger Ebert. Inconsequential as it might seem (as it is written out to be) in this version called ‘Goodbye Solo’, Bahrani serves to extrapolate the possibilities of human behaviour to a new high solely by sticking to the basics: Keeping it real. A masterful life that’s lived on screen, requiring nothing more than photography, ‘Goodbye Solo’ helps induce that kind of a numbness that you’d attribute to perfect sense. And that’s exactly what it is.
(2005): This undoubtedly is me saving the best for last, and I don’t want misconceptions about it. Affecting as it’s real, heavy as it’s built to be and powered by utterances that are no less relevant than they are impacting, Ryan Fleck bundles the reality of a thousand yearning minds into an epic film venture that served to hold me closer, every time I watched it. ‘Half Nelson’ is a film which I’d brand to be my life, and I’m glad that it happened in the decade where it exactly mattered to me. Special Mention to Ryan Gosling for having added flesh to this blueprint of Dan Dunne, an acting capability that’s more channelized than forced. Unforgettable, to say the least.
& 
(2007) – Is it time for Hollywood already? I think it’s better to credit those who are worth it, so here goes a couple from the ‘magic year’ again. First up it’s James Mangold’s reinterpretation of an alleged classic ‘3:10 to Yuma
(2004): Richard Linklater deserves this credit for what he weaved nine years previous to this one with his dream on screen that he called ‘
’. But of course, I would only allude ‘Before Sunset’ to an even higher level of impact, reinforced with stronger emotions (and by stronger, I mean more relevant), additional maturity and an increased sense of despair that makes it more equipped than its prequel. Power-packed in the battle of words.
(2001): As he demonstrates in the ensemble tribute to the Cannes Film festival, Nanni Moretti prefers exactly what he does, interspersing serious content with believability that almost always involves a level of honesty that’s rare to find. He could have lost a son and I wouldn’t know, and this could exactly have been the scenario. I hope I’m understood when I say that this is an achievement in parallel cinema that has never been accomplished by directors from the middle-east, who make it a point to serve it as a cliché.
(2004) & 
(2006): My entrants to the ‘comedy of the decade’ section, both films established relatable human tendencies by laughing at them: If it was infidelity in Alexander Payne’s ‘Sideways’, it’s underage overindulgence in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. An additional similarity would be the road trips, ravishing with the scent of quality wine with the stench of human complexities and the simple knots that need untying in order to be free of the same. Winners, in their own ways.
(2004): Not some close-run contest for ‘Best Erotic picture of the decade’ (with Alfonso Cuaron’s incredible ‘
’ and Giuseppe Tornatore’s lustful ‘
’ as top competitors), but as the right mix (to ODing proportions) of love, sex and ideology. A film equivalent to a tasteful meal that has the power to linger than to pass off as masturbatory, wrapped in the folds of a tribute to Cinema, ‘The Dreamers’ is a massive chunk off the uncontrollable Betrolucci that’s here to stay. One of pure pleasure.
(2007) – Directed by Cristian Mungu, a shout to the world from a less-known Romanian, this could probably be the most horrific film I’ve ever seen. Horrific because it’s matter-of-fact, it’s tragedy that’s not shown to be so, because it’s real. One of those films that are imperative in the sense that they compulsorily would have had to happen to contemporary cinema, so as to shift perception from incurable narrow-mindedness to any ‘vision’ of sorts.
(2007) – Director Fatih Akin knows enough of good English to call this film ‘The Edge of Heaven’ and rightly so. Finding screens in what could be the magic year of international cinema in recent times (with further additions being the frosty ‘
’ by Gus Van Sant and ‘
’ by Hsiao-Hsien Hou), this strong force of feminism comes from one who shocked me with his blatant previous venture ‘
’ (‘Head On’, in English). Hard-hitting and unceremoniously honest, ‘The Edge of Heaven’ would remain a contemporary classic in any heart of true spirit.
(2007) – Made by John Carney, almost conveying the real life stories of ‘The Swell Season’ frontman Glen Hansard and his female equal Marketa Irglova, ‘Once’ explores that kind of a relationship that no one has exploited to any level of justice before: That of unconditional love and a friendliness that’s past physicality. Startling with its emotional purity, ‘Once’ also offers possibly one of the most heartwarming soundtracks of recent times, including the evergreen ‘When your mind’s made up’ and the prized ‘Falling Slowly’. 
(2000) – Christopher Nolan would be hard to miss by any contemporary film enthusiast, given that he entered to revolutionize the art of thinking in itself, let alone configuring a film to popular appreciation (although he subsequently did go on to do just that). But all the same, ‘Memento’ would remain unmatched as the pioneer of sequencing, where the man observed that no story remains the same when you’re done dissecting it (I leave the succinct terms to the people who know of them).
(2001) – I honestly had to debate the addition of David Lynch to a list of small timers who just recently have been making themselves big while Lynch has a reputation to himself. Still, I realized that I can’t have a weird movie better than ‘Mulholland Drive’ in this list, beating competitors like the unbelievably emotional ‘
’ (2006) by Guillermo Del Toro (another find who can’t be missed) or the outstandingly animated ‘
’ (2009) which more or less follows the former. Credited for hard-hitting performances (Naomi Watts, Laura Harring) and directorial brilliance in the exact amount, it thus gets its place.
(2006) – A retrace after digressing into less serious ventures, this stunner by master director Kenneth Loach takes an overtly leftist tone that has long eluded viewer eyes, probably after Emir Kusturica’s unforgettable ‘
’ (1995). Of course, there’s the case of the where one could find the spirit in the first place, but then again, through burning eyes and contempt that boils one’s blood, matched by the subtlety in storytelling of as old a warhorse as Mr. Loach, ‘The Wind that shakes the Barley’ would be my stunner of the decade.