The Ugly Truth About Dating: He’s Just Not That Into You

I had planned to see The Ugly Truth this weekend. The movie looked like the perfect, although formulaic chick flick. But before Saturday had even rolled around, I had read not one, but six BAD reviews about The Ugly Truth. In fact, I couldn’t find a blog, website, newspaper or person who had one good thing to say about his movie.  Apparently there is a scene involving ‘vibrator panties and a business meeting that cause a few chuckles.  OK is this what passes for romantic comedy these days? The old cliche’ of the hard-nosed career woman falling for  the charms of a rough macho man are just plain tired. Come on people….We want better  Chick Flicks! Say it with me…WE WANT BETTER CHICK FLICKS!!!

Required Reading: Dating 101

So I saved myself $10.00 and pulled from my Netflix que: He’s Just Not That Into You. Somehow I missed this movie when it was in the theaters. But now I want to buy it.  The movie stars Drew Barrymore,  Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Connelly,  and Scarlett Johanson who are facing various relationship problems in the modern world.

The movie is loosely based on the book of the same name by Greg Behrendt.   The movie starts with one of the truest and most influential scenes ever filmed. Women are indoctrinated with an insidious lie that makes many of us fall victim to the wrong guy over and over again. From childhood we are told that if a guy ignores you, is mean to you, treats you badly, doesn’t call you when he says he will, or in any other way acts like a real jerk–Well, it’s obvious, he likes you. Of course, he likes me. That’s right, he likes me so much and he is afraid of the intimacy, so he is ignoring me. What a load of  bull%#@ (ohhh wait, this is a PG blog).

This is one of the many things I liked about He’s Just Not That Into You.  It’s not the typical Chick Flick. In fact, take a look at the short promotion trailer in my sidebar, featuring 3 of the male stars that gives 10 typical chick flick clichés that the movie does not contain.

The story centers around Gigi, played by Ginnifer Goodwin. Gigi is like many of us.  She goes out with a guy, has a nice time and when he says  “I’ll call you sometime“.  She foolishly believes he will call. In fact,  poor Gigi waits by the phone, constantly checks her voice mail and even drops by his favorite bar hoping to “accidentally” run into him. Why am I saying foolish? Like you haven’t done at least one of these things (or worse)?

Anyway, while under the pretense of returning a lost pen, Gigi meets the Alex who is played by Justin Long. (You may know him as the MAC guy in the PC vs. MAC commercials. But I remember him from the Star Trek spoof, Galaxy Quest). Alex sets Gigi straight on the way men think. If a guy doesn’t call you, he is not interested. Plain and simple.  A few years ago, I had a similar conversation with a male friend who I was hoping would turn into a boyfriend, but unlike Gigi, I refused to believe it can be that simple. Please…Ladies, Chicas, Girlfriends… Believe me. its that simple. We are not the exception, we are the rule.

Other story  lines follow Scarlett Johanson as an aspiring singer who becomes involved with  a married record company executive, played by Bradley Cooper (recently seen in The Hangover); Jennifer Aniston, who  is in a 7-year  relationship with Ben Affleck, a man who doesn’t believe in the institution of marriage. Drew Barrymore’s character is an advertising sales rep at a magazine geared towards the gay community who is having difficulty with dating in this technology driven world.

“I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies.
It’s exhausting.”

The movie takes each of their relationships through some twists and turns, and while its not a perfect movie, I really enjoyed He’s Just Not That Into You .