There's this quote I've always loved - it's attributed to John Waters, I believe -  that basically says, no movie should ever be over 90 minutes.  It's funny, ha ha, because so many classic films run far longer than 90 minutes and do so with flying colors.  Could The Godfather: Part II or Lawrence of Arabia be done in 90 minutes?  Maybe, but they wouldn't be the outstanding and epic films they are.  Could He's Just Not That Into You cut it's 129 minute runtime down to 90?  Of course, and it would've been a much much better film for it.

He's Just Not That Into You is loosely based on the self-help book, of the same title, written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.  It's an honest and empowering book for women that had the "no-excuses truth to understand guys."  I loved the books matter-of-fact honesty and a lot of that is carried over into the film.  The film follows a number of interconnecting stories set in Baltimore as people attempt to find happiness with the opposite sex.

I believe there is a lot to love about He's Just Not That Into You.  I found, for the most part, that the performances across the board were charming and great.  There's a number of television actors that I was happy to see get their chance to shine on the big screen.  People like Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love), Kevin Connolly (Entourage), and Bradley Cooper (Alias) who are all great actors.  They give some of the strongest and most interesting performances in the entire film and I found myself wishing the entire film had been centered around their characters.  I also loved Jennifer Connelly's performance as a somewhat-frigid-and-suspicious wife to Bradley Cooper's overly-charming-and-flirtatious husband who begins having an affair with Scarlett Johansson.  However, I found Johansson's performance as "the other woman," to be incredibly rigid and one dimensional.  Yes, she's pretty to look at but I found her performance at times to be incredibly awkward and I found even the way she walked in some scenes to be distracting (total nitpick, but I noticed it.)  I was also very pleased to see Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck in something that wasn't miserably awful.  Both actors have had a rough time finding worth-while work and I was pleasantly surprised with their performances.  Kudos, Affleck and Aniston.  I like both of you.

It sucks that almost every romantic comedy that comes out is garbage because there is so much potential within the genre and I would say that this film does a pretty good job at exploring a lot of the different relationships from different angles and does it with a certain amount of admirable grace.  Sadly, it doesn't go very far beneath the surface and the film isn't as funny as you'd hope.  Ginnifer Goodwin brings a great deal of sweetness and humor into every scene she's in but almost every other story arc is borderline depressing.  The film was attempting to be more than a run of the mill rom-com - which I absolutely support - however, being a romantic comedy isn't always a bad thing.

So what's the biggest flaw in the film?  It's 129 fucking minutes.  The last 25 minutes of the film drag on and on and I found myself wondering why certain scenes weren't trimmed or cut out completely.  Extraneous characters like Drew Barrymore that have almost no effect on the main story arcs were tedious and unnecessary which is unfortunate because there is a good movie somewhere in this long winded dramedy.

I really wanted to like this movie but it's hard to say I did, when by the end, I was glad the credits were rolling.  While it isn't the moan inducing 145 minutes of the Sex and the City movie it isn't that much of an improvement as both of these films should've been 90-100 minutes.  There is such a thing as too much of a good thing and this movie is exactly that.  I'd watch this movie for Ginnifer Goodwin's dimples alone but after 129 minutes I wasn't that into it.  (Sorry I had to.)

2.5/5

So say we all.