Blu-Ray Review: Dull Special Features For Cute ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’

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CHICAGO – Ken Kwapis’ “He’s Just Not That Into You” is far from a romantic comedy masterpiece but it’s a decent genre entry with an immensely likable cast that will probably entice more than a few renters and maybe even a few buyers. They deserve a better Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

Like a night of speed dating, “He’s Just Not That Into You” is a mixed bag of hits and misses with enough quality acting and likable characters to recommend a rental but a film that ultimately doesn’t live up to the pedigree of its cast or the potential of its concept.

He’s Just Not That Into You was released on Blu-Ray on June 2nd, 2009.
Photo credit: WB

Ginnifer Goodwin (who steals the film overall) stars as Gigi and, considering she narrates the film and most of the characters spin off from her plot arc, the lead of the story. Gigi is stuck in the cliches of dating that we’re all taught from an early age like “he’s mean to you because he likes you” and “don’t call him, he’ll call you.”

He’s Just Not That Into You was released on Blu-Ray on June 2nd, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Gigi goes out on a first date with real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly) and becomes obsessed with the young man, watching the phone and going by his regular haunt just to see if he’s there.

That’s where Gigi runs into Alex (Justin Long), a bartender who breaks the truth to the sweet girl - he’s just not that into you. Of course, being a romantic comedy, it’s only a matter of time before Alex IS into Gigi.

That arc would be enough for one romantic comedy but it’s just the beginning of this “Short Cuts”-esque tapestry of chick flick stories. It turns out that Conor isn’t into Gigi is because he’s still hung up with Anna (Scarlett Johannson), who happens to be falling for the married Ben (Bradley Cooper).

Ben is married to Janine (Jennifer Connelly), who also happens to work with Gigi. Ben is good friends with Neil (Ben Affleck), the longtime boyfriend of Beth (Jennifer Aniston), who ALSO happens to work with Gigi. And I haven’t even mentioned Drew Barrymore. The pile-up of coincidental connections is one of the failures of the script. I longed for ONE character not related by one degree of separation to every other one.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” works because writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein don’t make the common mistake of modern romantic comedy by either populating them with hateful jerks or complete morons and they consciously avoid pratfuls, bodily humor or montages set to the latest pop tune.

He’s Just Not That Into You was released on Blu-Ray on June 2nd, 2009. Photo credit: WB

Goodwin, Affleck, and Aniston are very good. Conversely, Cooper’s role doesn’t seem very believable and Jennifer Connelly seems lost, unable to figure this character out. The 129-minute running time is also far too long.

I’m also a little disturbed by the overriding depression on display in “He’s Just Not That Into You”. The film could have been more fun. Believe it or not, people do actually get together without so much angst.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” is clearly worth a rental but the Blu-Ray release is disappointing. Director Ken Kwapis does an intriguing commentary over about 14 minutes of deleted scenes. Why not do a commentary over the whole film? It’s disappointing that he chose not to.

And the featurettes are all very brief. The “Baltimore Blade” special feature provides brief (2-3 minute) interviews with not the actors but their characters. Because we all want two more minutes with Janine. It’s annoying, misguided, and poorly organized.

The two behind-the-scenes features total about 15 minutes in length. It’s a shockingly short collection of special features for a film that clearly took a lot of effort from a lot of people on-camera alone.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]