It’s perhaps Freudian that I was talking to someone about this film and they misheard it as He’s Just Not That Interesting. On reflection, none of the guys in this multi-stranded relationship movie are that interesting. Not Ben Affleck as the marriage-shy guy who’s just been given an ultimatum by longtime girlfriend Jennifer Aniston. Nor Justin Long as the cynical bar manager who dishes out dating advice to the cute serial stalker Ginnifer Goodwin. Not even the sorta happily married music exec Bradley Cooper who’s tempted to cheat on his wife Jennifer Connelly by the sultry yoga teacher/wannabe singer Scarlett Johansson while she rejects the smitten realtor Kevin Connolly who is sold ads by the lovelorn Drew Barrymore. Oh yeah, and the girls are pretty dull too.
As well as all these lover-crossed stars, there’s a random Kris Kristofferson thrown into the mix (as a dad not a dater, thankfully). But all the star wattage in the world isn’t enough to rescue the overly sappy, unfunny script. Based (loosely) on the eponymous self-help book, He’s Just Not That Interesting is unlikely to help anyone but the most desperately dateless. While most girls have listened to friends agonise and over-analyse their prospective boyfriends, that doesn’t mean we want to watch other people do it for over two hours.
Reviewed by Margaret Agnew – Margaret’s day job is chief film reviewer for The Press newspaper, she also writes the film blog Reeling.
