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Why didn't I post this? I had this sitting around in a Word document, but it's been a month or two since I watched the movie. Ah well, better late than never.

Okay, so. I'm not big on romantic comedies. There was recently an article or conversation brought up somewhere about how they give people false impressions of what love and relationships are, which makes for idealistic expectations and inevitable disappointment when reality rolls around. And I can totally see it. It's pretty easy to see that a fantasy or action movie is fiction. No matter what happens, I'm not gonna get invited to Hogwarts and I'm not gonna develop superpowers to save the world, as much as I may wish it ;( But rom-coms tend to be set in the present in a typical town or city, centered around relatively typical people doing relatively typical things. So I'm not at all surprised that so many may genuinely believe such things can happen to them.

All that said, I like a lot of ensemble movies, as weird as that might be. There's something about several stories and characters unfolding and interrelating that I like. So when my parents came home tonight with He's Just Not That Into You, I figured it could be worth watching, especially considering how many big names there are in it.

It was an interesting watch. I appreciated the fact that not everyone got a happily ever after, even though the lessons seemed rather shallow. “Don’t cheat on your spouse,” and “If you’re married, have sex with your spouse or they’ll cheat on you.” Or something. Actually, that’s probably taking it a little out of context, as there was clearly more behind the characters and their conflict. But still.

Another gripe I had was how gays were certainly in the picture, but always on the periphery, sometimes as something of a plot point. I saw a promo for the movie on youtube titled “10 Chick Flick cliches you will NOT see in He's Just Not That Into You,” and one of them was how there was no quirky, sardonic, or sassy best friend to give the heroine advice. True, but there were definitely the stereotypical gay friends or coworkers or acquaintances or whatever there to weigh in. Their convenient ubiquity coupled with the fact that they had no major role or storyline kinda put me off when I stopped to think about it.

That said, I actually really enjoyed it. The main storyline, anyway. Gigi starts off as an extremely flighty chica with a rather tenuous grip on how relationships really work. Or how guys do, that is. She gets better, though, and makes admirable progress as a character, going from a princess waiting for a fairy tale to a well-adjusted lady with quite a sharp eye. So when all stories were wrapping up – all very emotional moments, mind – and it got to her happy ending, I was all sorts of happy and sniffly. Course, I was already getting worked up by the end of the one before, and I’m a huge fan of Keane. So when the piano intro of their “Somewhere Only We Know” came on at the beginning of her scene, it was misty-eyes time f’srs. A most beautiful song, to be sure. And when the guy Alex gave that one line? Heart kiiinda melted, I don’t care how cheesy it might’ve been. Consider me a Justin Long fan(girl) now, he was pretty superawesome in this one.