Racialicious at the Movies: He’s Just Not That Into You
by Latoya Peterson
You know, dear readers, I am sometimes entirely too curious for my own good.
But I’m going to blame Joseph for this latest bout of killing the cat, since it was his comment (#58) on the original HJNTIY thread that led me to the Friday matinee show.
Before I jump into my impressions of the movie, let me add a little background information. We often receive comments on Racialicious about how sometimes people just want to escape, or that movies are made for “intellectuals,” or that we critique everything and never like anything, or that we are busy judging things we haven’t seen or don’t watch or whatever.
These comments are generally incorrect. In the case of He’s Just Not That Into You :
- I remember where this all started, as I watched Seasons 1 – 4 of Sex and the City, and sporadically finished out the rest of the series. (I enjoyed the series, glaring race and class issues aside – I just tend to lose patience with most shows after a few seasons.)
- Not only do I remember the episode that spawned the book, I actually read He’s Just Not That Into You. The book wasn’t very memorable, but it is infinitely better than It’s Called A Break Up Because It’s Broken which made me want to gouge out my eyes with the spoon I was supposed to use to eat my break-up mandated pint of Chunky Monkey. (No, that’s in the book. The cover shot is an empty pint of ice cream.) Instead of reading that, I recommend Cindy Chupack’s Between Boyfriends. She also wrote for Sex and the City and while the book isn’t self-help, it’s probably more helpful than that mess.
- I really enjoy escapist romantic comedies. Seriously. I deal with race, gender, class and activism all freaking day – what do you think I go home and do? All I ever want is a glass of wine and something funny. That’s all. However, I would prefer that comedy doesn’t actively insult my intelligence. (In another post, somewhere in the future, I’ll talk about one of my favorite romcoms – That’s The Way I Like It – and why it works using the romcom formula without becoming formulaic.)
So, I went to the movie cautious. While I hated the trailers, the alternate trailer (marketed to guys, natch) made the movie seem more interesting than I had anticipated. So after lunch, I suckered my boyfriend into going with me.
*WARNING: SPOLIERS AHEAD*
I settle into the theater and start watching the movie. After about fifteen minutes, I figure out that I am going to be bored and start taking notes on my cell phone.
The opening montage falls into stereotypes quickly. After the scene shown in the trailer with the little girl being pushed by the little boy on the playground, the film hops around the globe to show how women have internalized these fucked up notions of dating and romance. I quickly figured out who Tokyo Girl #1 and #2 are – they talked about men not having the emotional maturity to understand relationships, in S Cawaii/Fruits style outfits. (These two women and the guy at the fictional Baltimore Blade are the only Asians in the film with speaking lines.) African Women 1, 2, and 3 also made an appearance. They sat around in the dust, explaining that a guy hadn’t called because “he forgot your hut number” or “got eaten by a lion.”
While the film zips back to Baltimore to identify the real characters, I found myself starting to hate them all within their first few minutes on screen. Gigi (Gennifer Goodwin) would be a great Manic Pixie Dream Girl if this was a movie about a man. But since the movie revolves around her, we get to see what happens when the sparkly sidekick shimmer wears off – MPDGs just ooze desperation. I was embarrassed for her character who seemed to have read every women’s magazine on the shelf and accepted it as the gospel.
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