La verità è che non gli piaci abbastanza

The film starts with a little girl in a playground getting bullied by a boy, and her mother telling her that this means that the boy likes her, setting up the premise that the more a guy treats a woman like dirt, the more she'll hang around on the phone waiting for his call. From this point we follow the relationship woes of six (no eight, nine, is it ten?) different people and their relationships ups and downs, as one guy is trapped in a loveless marriage, one couple realise they want different things and one woman who is trying to figure out how to play the dating game, the stories cross and intertwine and from this comical situations ensue.

Now, from the tone of the last part of that sentence you may well have come to the conclusion that this is just another standard romantic comedy chick-flick, and, on paper, it should be. But it's not. The script is very similar in tone and feel to "When Harry met Sally" with "supposed" regular people introducing each chapter of the film, the insights are decent and the dialogue contains a lot of honesty that I think many people can relate to. The cast are all first rate with special attention going to Ben Affleck, who has so needed a good role in front of the camera for ages, and Jennifer Aniston as the couple who can't move forward, also good are Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Connolly in their respective roles. The big star turns for me though are Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long as the hapless dater and the hapless dating coach, who are really good. For Long it's another step up the Hollywood ranks (pretty much the direction he's been heading since "Dodgeball") and for Goodwin it is a star-making turn that should do for her what "knocked-up" did for Heigl.

The film of course has a number of elements and outcomes that are extremely predictable (it IS a romantic comedy) but there's enough other stuff in there, and definite surprises at the end, to make it more than just the sum of its parts. It's charming, clever and, when viewed with a pantomime-style audience that I saw it with, a lot of fun, and I'm a guy! A cross between "When Harry met Sally" and "Friends" that doesn't try and jump on the gross-out comedy bandwagon.

Good stuff

I didn't have high expectations for this movie. I never read the book HJNTIY (seemed pretty self explanatory by the title alone) and I wasn't really sure how it could be made into a film, but I'll say I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That being said, this is a CHICK FLICK--not a date movie. So don't be surprised by all the negative reviews written by guys--of course they can't stand it, and I definitely wouldn't try dragging your boyfriend to go see it for Valentine's Day...this is a movie you want to see with the girls. I wasn't that interested in seeing it, but I was talked into it and it was the perfect 2 hour distraction. The cast is fun to watch--Jennifer Anniston, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly are delightful on screen together, and I even take back all the bad things I've said about Ben Affleck--I thought he was a perfect fit for this movie.

It's also a very funny movie--I'm one of those people who love going to a packed theater where everyone laughs on cue and claps at the end, and this was one of those experiences. Some of the lines are priceless, and a couple of the funniest scenes in the movie involve "street interviews" à la Sex and the City Season 1. It's just an easy, fun, entertaining film--just relax and enjoy yourself, and don't try to hold this movie to a standard that it wasn't designed to meet. I'd go see it in a packed theater if you can, otherwise wait for the DVD and have a girls' night in!

I really like this film, but Gigi is pure cringe. It's embarrassing. It's hard to love a movie when you don't sympathize with a central character.

A limp ensemble relationship movie that feels like the frustrated venting of a bitter single girl after a blind date gone badly awry.

This is the kind of movie where a bunch of 20 and 30-somethings own beautiful loft apartments they couldn't possibly afford and struggle with relationship issues that are just boring to watch other people grapple with if you yourself are over the age of 30. Once again we're expected to accept Jennifer Aniston as a sad sack who can't get a date after she dumps the long-time boyfriend (Ben Affleck, playing not so much a character as a woman's fantasy made real) who won't commit to marriage. Ginnifer Goodwin is the doormat who can't figure out why guys won't call her even though they say they will. Justin Long is terribly miscast as a womanizer who doesn't know when he's fallen in love himself (I can't look at him without seeing the image of his dork from "Dodgeball" getting hit in the face with a wrench, which is not far from what I wanted to do to his character in this movie). Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper are the lone married couple in the film, and because this is a Hollywood movie about relationships, of course the married couple MUST be miserable. Scarlett Johanssen is a bombshell with giant knockers that I couldn't take my eyes off of; Drew Barrymore might as well not be in the movie, and only is because a.) she co-produced it and b.) the filmmakers needed a forum in which to introduce a bunch of stock gay characters. You want to throttle pretty much everyone by the time the movie's over; I settled for thanking God I didn't have to be friends with any of them.

Though the film was only written by two people, it has the feeling of something written by committee. Characters aren't consistent or believable; those played by Goodwin and Connelly more often than not come across as mentally ill. In the world of this film, there are only two kinds of marriages: the ones that end in adultery and bitterness, or the ones that end in a ridiculously romanticized version of happily-ever-after. No wonder so many people have trouble making marriages work if they're using films like this as examples.

What a dud, and probably solid evidence that movies shouldn't be adapted from smug and jokey self-help books written by jackass talk show hosts.

Grade: C+

A group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty- and thirty-somethings navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life, trying to read the signs of the opposite sex... and hoping to be the exceptions to the "no-exceptions" rule.

Gigi just wants a man who says he'll call—and does—while Alex advises her to stop sitting by the phone. Beth wonders if she should call it off after years of committed singlehood with her boyfriend, Neil, but he doesn't think there's a single thing wrong with their unmarried life. Janine's not sure if she can trust her husband, Ben, who can't quite trust himself around Anna. Anna can't decide between the sexy married guy, or her straightforward, no-sparks standby, Conor, who can't get over the fact that he can't have her. And Mary, who's found an entire network of loving, supportive men, just needs to find one who's straight.

If you've ever sat by the phone wondering why he said he would call, but didn't, or if you can't figure out why she doesn't want to sleep with you anymore, or why your relationship just isn't going to the next level... he (or she) is just not that into you. He's Just Not That Into You 7/10