"He's just not that into you"

Last week, during my regular friday walk with a close friend at work, she told me she had broken up with her boyfriend of 5 months. Having been with her since I started working here in Canada more than two years ago and having witnessed the struggles she had gone through in finding this nice guy five months ago, I was devastated for her to say the least. She is the best person there is to have in a partner. How could the world not give her what she deserves? I could feel her sadness. I also remembered how lonely it felt to be in this circumstance. I couldn't sleep last night and so turned to watch a late night movie on tv.

On any other day, I would have ignored this movie. The title alone didn't sound appealing to me. Aside from the lack of "poetry", it gives me visions of women crying and getting dumped and somehow through that it has comedy mixed into it. I thought, "why would anyone want to see a movie that tells them the person they most want aren't into them?" And then find anything in that funny. But since this was a night of heartache, I thought I'd watch it. Also seeing the many famous actors in one movie peaked my interest. There were Drew Barymore and Jennnifer Connely as well as Aniston. (And even though Ben Affleck was in, I figured I could tolerate him for now with all these great girls around.) The movie started out as per my low expectation, a bit patchy, a bit on the cheesy side, trying too hard to be humorous while trying to be smart at the same time, and somewhat segmented as about four different stories were unfolded all at the same time. Also it didn't help that they kept having a slideshow suddenly pop up in between scenes mentioning a phrase which summarizies the scenes earlier and pointing out how one could tell if they are not into you and then a commentary of a supposedly real person (not part of the stories) follows, before it goes back to continue the movie again.

One of the main characters was also a semi-obsessive partner seeker and prone to over analyzing little things and so there were a lot of scenes where I found myself cringing because it placed the character in awkward situations which if I was in her shoes, I could imagine myself not going out of my room for months. Yes, it was uncomfortable to watch.

But and a big BUT, they were mostly true. And real.

By the time the second slideshow/commentary came in, I found myself enjoying it. the And then to my utmost surprise, I began liking the character I initially disliked the most. And best of all, I liked the ending very much. I won't spoil it by talking about the details but it is the kind of ending that gives a nice "closure" to the many stories within the movie. (And if you stayed a little bit more after the movie credits come up, they even show some post interviews of the couples which added I found very delightful as well.) And because it had many mini- stories within it, the movie was able to depict love (and relationships) with its many faces, the happy ones and the not so happy ones. Just like in real life. In this sense it felt like the movie was fully packed, with a lot of wisdom and humor. I also quite liked how simple things in our daily life could mean everything when seen at a right time and right mind like when Jennifer sees her ex-partner washing the dishes at the most critical time that she needed help and how that could change everything and make one realize that sometimes we already have what we want in life. As a whole I quite liked this movie. I had fun watching it. So if ever you find this one free on tv like I did, don't be put off by the title, it's a nice movie about finding love in this modern day and the realities within our most important relationships. My initial perceptions about this movie was totally wrong. The movie is deeper than the title might suggest otherwise.

And maybe after you watch it, you could then watch this teaser that some of the actors made for the movie. I think it may be best to watch this after you've seen the movie - when you've gotten to know the actors as their movie characters and not in this goofy way, but...on the other hand, it is quite funny. :)