Review: ''The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2009''

Reviews

Review: He's Just Not That Into You

Reduces both men and women to shrill stereotypes

By PETER KEOUGH | February 4, 2009 | SHOWTIMES + MORE

0.0 Stars

VIDEO: The trailer for He's Just Not That Into You

And why isn't he? Could it be because you're needy, nagging, and possibly psychotic? And why are you into him, if he's insensitive and deceitful and has unpleasant red fur growing on his pasty legs?

And why will women be flocking to a film that reduces both men and women to shrill stereotypes designed to turn us all into consumers of the items paraded in the film's product placement? Ken Kwapis adapts the book that was inspired by a line in a TV series into a movie that runs 132 minutes. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Connelly play a couple who are married but not happy.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston play a couple who are happy but not married. Single women played by Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, and Drew Barrymore suffer from varying degrees of clinginess; Justin Long and Kevin Connolly play variations on macho shitheads. Moral: boorish men are punished, crazy women are rewarded, and happiness is a diamond ring.

Movie: He's Just Not That Into You:

Movie type: Comedy, Romance
MPAA rating: PG-13
Released: February 6, 2009
Run time: 129 min

Directed By: Ken Kwapis
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Kris Kristofferson, Justin Long

Showtimes + More

Related: Review: Marley & Me, Anti-depressant cinema, Autumn peeves, More

Topics: Reviews , Ben Affleck, Candace Bushnell, Drew Barrymore, More

Comments

Add a Comment

Today's Event Picks

[MUSIC] Dominique Labelle

Plus 1 more >>

-->

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH

REVIEW: ''THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2009'' | February 04, 2009
Varying degrees of schmaltz and subtlety

REVIEW: HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU | February 04, 2009
Reduces both men and women to shrill stereotypes

THE PARENT TRAP | February 06, 2009
Coraline pushes familiar buttons

REVIEW: LARK AND TERMITE | January 29, 2009
Total immersion

REVIEW: WENDY AND LUCY | January 20, 2009
It's a dog's life

See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

CONGRESS'S WAR ON TOYS
Incredible, but true: until this past Friday, America was on a fast track to outlaw grandmothers selling children's sweaters for charity.

ROBERT CRUMB AT MASSART
R. Crumb's Underground at MassArt

2009 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
This year the Oscars will honor the men who suffer for our sins and the women who don't wear make-up.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Warren Harding was obviously not one of our greatest presidents. But during his little more than two years in the White House, he did offer some shrewd insights into life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

SLIDESHOW: R. CRUMB'S UNDERGROUND
Featuring work from R. Crumb over the last 40 years.

OPEN HOUSE
I put on the obligatory hard hat and walk through the doors of what used to be Avalon on Lansdowne Street, across from Fenway Park. To the layman — me — it's all dust, noise, metal, and mess.

REVIEW: THE PINK PANTHER 2
Part "deux" of the resurrected Blake Edwards's franchise returns Steve Martin as the hapless Inspector Clouseau.

THE KULT OF AL KAPRIELIAN
It's the coldest day of the winter so far and Al Kaprielian is excited.

MEDIA MISFITS
The series grew out of an excellent 1999 documentary directed by author Arthur Bradford ( Dogwalker ) and produced by South Park 's Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

MONEY TALKS
To hear our state legislators talk lately, Beacon Hill is all about reforming the sketchy, poorly governed relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists.

CONGRESS'S WAR ON TOYS
Incredible, but true: until this past Friday, America was on a fast track to outlaw grandmothers selling children's sweaters for charity.

CAN THE GEEKS SAVE RHODE ISLAND?
The tech sector offers promise for the economic future, but a small labor pool and other hurdles must be overcome

ROBERT CRUMB AT MASSART
R. Crumb's Underground at MassArt

ARABIAN NIGHTS
At a time when the world's attention is often focused on the countries of the Middle East, it's especially intriguing to dip into the Arabic folk tales of the region, which became the stories told by Scheherazade across a thousand and one nights.

INTERVIEW: ARTIST, CONSTRUCTION WORKER SUSAN EISENBERG
In order to shine some light on the inequality – as well as call attention to the strong, talented tradeswomen who wire this country's buildings, lay out piping systems, and fabricate metals – the local artist and poet Susan Eisenberg, herself a pioneering tradeswoman who came into the business in 1978, has unveiled On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30 Years & Still Organizing at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.

ARTISTS GET THE SHAFT
On a tour of the studios at 337 Summer Street, Jen Mecca, a textile artist, points out some of the spaces recently vacated by artists and craftsmen, including a pair of furniture makers who left for Somerville.

SCHOOL POLITICS
Public education in Boston will be a hot-button issue in this year's municipal election in ways that have not been seen for at least 10 years.

THE KULT OF AL KAPRIELIAN
It's the coldest day of the winter so far and Al Kaprielian is excited.

PSYCHEDELEGATES
Conventional wisdom says that those who can't do teach — and that record collectors do not rock stars make.

A FUSILLADE OF TWEETS RING IN THE NEW YEAR IN RI
The feed is like a collective stream of consciousness, served up in tidbits of 140 characters or less (this sentence, for perspective, is 100).

HOT TOPICS

David Cronenberg , Jason Statham , Bob Dylan , Javier Bardem , Al Gore , Museum of Fine Arts , Daniel Day-Lewis , Casey Affleck , Paul Thomas Anderson , Gus Van Sant

Reviews

Review: He's Just Not That Into You

The parent trap

Review: ''The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2009''

Review: The Class

Review: He's Just Not That Into You

Review: The Uninvited