It's your fault that he's just not that into you...

Last weekend, I saw He's Just Not That Into You. I knew the reviews were not the best, but I was intrigued by the book's success. I've never personally read the book but nearly ALL of my girl friends have read it and swear that it changed their life for the better. To sum up my experience of the movie, I was very disappointed.

I was told by my friends that the book is supposed to be self-help. It's purpose is to make girls feel better about themselves and to know that the jerk that they're dating is the problem- not them. The movie makes all of the females look like naive idiots who have no game. Scarlett Johanson's character is just a plain slut who thinks the married man she's seeing would somehow be a great husband for HER one day. Jennifer Aniston's character has a common law marriage with a man who wants to be with her forever but not marry her for some reason (but at least she finally cracks). Drew Barrymore's character has no style and falls for men on myspace like a thirteen year old girl. Ginnifer Goodwin's character probably has the worst game compared to any other tragic female character in Hollywood.

All of the men in this movie justify their positions very well. They are to the point and barely dwell on their flaws. In fact, the screenwriters make them look calm, cool and collected. And of course all of the women go crazy. All they do is dwell on their jerk boyfriends and husbands. They also tell each other what THEY are doing wrong and how they need to change themselves in order for the men to like them. Eventually, most of the relationships turn out for the "better." But one of the relationships bothers me the most.

Actors Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck play the long term couple who have a common law marriage. Ben Affleck never doubts his affections for her, but he is absolutely terrified about actually marrying the woman he loves. They are actually broken up a majority of the film because of his noncommittal ways but eventually get back together. They get back together because Aniston's character submits to his marriage-less standards. However, the predictable script ends with Affleck surprising Aniston with a proposal. But in the proposal he admits that even though he doesn't believe in marriage, he is willing to basically do it just to make her happy. Even though this pacifies the non-analytical viewer, I think that these actions make Aniston just look like a high maintence character because Affleck's character never agrees that marriage is actually the right thing to do. He just submits and in turn, looks like a "sweet" boyfriend.

This movie oddly made me feel more pessimistic about men and marriage. It seems like they all just submit to marriage in order to make us shut up and stop bugging them. I thought the book was created to make men look like the idiots- not women. The movie had the opposite effect.

Russ Bickerstaff offers interesting facts and opinions about the book and movie in his article " Book vs. Movie: He's Just Not that Into You." It seems like this project was doomed from the start and that the actual male authors of the book aren't that into the readers.