He’s Just Not That Into You, the Movie.

My friend and I went to the movies last week-end to see He’s Just Not That Into You. We had been waiting months for it to come to a theatre near us. Several years ago she had lent me her copy of the book by the same name. I had been moaning over a love affair gone south and she was tired of listening to my pathetic laments. To reinforce my lesson, she lent me the audio tapes to listen to in the car. She made me promise that if the same thing every happened to her, I would call her on it right away, before she fell into the pit of remorse.

We got to the theatre early and grabbed good seats at the late afternoon matinee that most suits our budget. The opening scene is a riot. It sounded like every woman in the theatre exhaled something that had been stagnating inside for a very long time. I am fricking serious! There were twitters, guffaws and laughing, but it was out there in the open …. finally someone is talking about it!

I really did not have high expectations for the movie but I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised. There were some big names in it and I thought it was well cast. I am certainly not a harsh movie critic; I enjoy almost every movie that the professional critics pan. I like to be carried away with period pieces and children’s fantasy movies, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or giant white bears carrying little girls across polar ice caps to save their friends.

Okay, back to this movie. A couple sat down in front of us which proved to be very entertaining in and of itself. The guy laughed at places that we didn’t. He sighed, slumped down in his seat, and put his hands over his eyes ~~ even as I gave myself a case of the hiccups trying not to laugh so loud as to drown out the dialogue. Part of my movie experience began to be about being aware of his reactions. I thought indignantly, “what is he groaning about? That was a perfectly legitimate request she just made!” even as I laughed at the whole scene.

Damaris leaned towards me and whispered loudly, “kick the back of his seat for me.” I shot her a glance and shook my head. There weren’t a lot of men in the theatre; we definitely had them outnumbered. I think he should get two points just for showing up. His date was laughing with him as they got up to leave at the end, so I assume it worked for them.

Anyway, I give it two thumbs up for a chick flick … as a date night ????? not so sure about that! I thought the ending was a bit too cliché but it worked.

* annette