There’s a great respect that should be given to films that try to talk about certain subject matters seriously. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ dealt with the subject of crime and punishment, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ dealt with race and prejudice, and the new film ‘He’s Just Not That into You’ deals with love and relationships. All these movies explore their subject matter and try to figure out the workings of them. The difference between the two past films and this recent film is that the past films worked, this one does not. For all its efforts and attempts to understand the dating world, ‘He’s Just Not into You‘ falls victim to becoming a generic romantic comedy instead becoming what it should be, a detailed analysis of love.

The film is about a series of people and how they deal with their romantic lives. It stars, well, everybody. Ben Affleck and Jenifer Aniston play a couple that’s been together for 7 years and yet Affleck still feels unethical about getting married. Aniston is friends with Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper, who play a married couple whose marriage is threatened by a young woman Cooper’s attracted to, played by Scarlett Johansson. She’s half dating a real-estate agent played by Kevin Connolly who’s half dating a pretty scatterbrain played by Ginnifer Goodwin. But that doesn’t last long as she starts getting romantic with straight-talking bartender played by Justin long while also giving advice to a magazine editor played by Drew Barrymore. Overwhelmed? Yeah, that’s the first problem with this movie.

The onslaught of stories doesn’t get confusing but it does get distracting. Just one of these stories would’ve been enough to analyze, but they decided that neither one was attention grabbing enough, so they threw in a dozen more. Why doesn’t Ben Affleck want to get married? He says he just doesn’t want to be like other couples. Why couldn’t the film have explored that more? Men often do have trouble committing, the film acknowledges that, but it doesn’t bother to find out why. Jennifer Connolly thinks her husband is having an affair, and yet what bothers her the most is that she thinks he’s lying to her about smoking. That’s very strange, even kind of demented; a closer analysis of this obsession would be interesting. But instead we get women waving their arms, complaining, gossiping, and overanalyzing in all the wrong areas.

Every person in this movie has talent and has acted well before, but none of them can pull off a credible performance with such underwritten characters. The film tries to develop them but sadly reduces them to cardboard cut outs. None of them are likeable, not one. Every character is either heartless, brainless, or graining, no doubt with the writers and directors thinking that they’re producing quirky, enjoyable people. There is a difference between delightfully quirky and annoyingly formulaic. On top of that, we also get doses of gay and African American stereotypes as well, parading them out just so we can laugh at how over the top their antics are.

For a film that is so ripe with realistic themes and ideas, it doesn’t take the risks to go a little further and really discover why these people act the way they do. They’d rather throw in some upbeat music and patronizing one-liners that’ll make people laugh while watching the trailer for it. The film isn’t horrible though, it’s just sloppy. It’s got good intentions and interesting ideas, but it doesn’t know how to present them in the best way possible. I suppose if you’re looking for a romantic film that has effort but not much thought, this might be the one for you. But if you’re looking for something consistent and solid, this film may just be too wobbly for you to handle.

So who’ll like it? People looking for a very simple romantic comedy. Not much thought but not totally devoid either, just don’t expect any great cinema.

Who won’t like it? People who’re tired of the romantic comedy formula/characters and would like to be challenged in their movie going experience.

My thoughts? I hate to give a negative review to a film like this because I do think it talks about issues that need to be talked about. But it’s inability to talk about it well and it’s ‘cop out’ way of just giving us the standard characters and situations we’ve seen a million times is simply too hard to ignore. To be honest I have nothing against a mindless romantic comedy if the story is strong and the characters truly seem in love. However, this film meets half way between art house movie and popcorn fluff, failing to do well in either category. Does it bomb in both categories? No, but it doesn’t go far enough, it needs to convict to what it is trying to do and not meet half way. People like conviction and dedication in their movies, much as they do their significant other. And if this movie took the time to explore that, they would’ve discovered that too.

Douglas Darien is a featured writer for Xomba.com. Read the rest of his work here or visit his website www.thatguywiththeglasses.com.