Taglines: Are you the exception…or the rule?
He’s Just Not That Into You is an American romantic comedy film, based on the self-help book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. Screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein team to adapt writing duo Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s best-selling book concerning the ever-widening gap between genders and the misunderstandings that often arise between couples. In the film, a woman who can’t seem to get a grip on the men in her life pursues an advice columnist who never quite knew what he wanted in a relationship.
Prolific television director Ken Kwapis (Freaks and Geeks and The Office) helms a romantic comedy produced by and starring Drew Barrymore. The ensemble also includes Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, and Ginnifer Goodwin. The book was inspired by an episode of Sex and the City titled “Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little,” in which Miranda asks Carrie’s boyfriend, Berger, to analyze the post-date behavior of a potential love interest. Because the man declined Miranda’s invitation to come up to her apartment after the date, stating that he has an early meeting, Berger concludes that “he’s just not that into you,” adding that “when a guy’s really into you, he’s coming upstairs, meeting or no meeting.”
A group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty- and thirtysomethings navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life. Trying to read the signs of the opposite sex, each hopes to be the exception to the “no exceptions” rule.
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GIGI
Maybe he called me and I didn’t get the message. Or maybe he lost my number, or was out of town, or was hit by a cab, or his grandma died.
ALEX
Or maybe he just didn’t call because he has no interest in seeing you again.
If you’ve ever sat by the phone wondering why he said he would call, but didn’t, or if you can’t figure out why she doesn’t want to sleep with you anymore, or why your relationship just isn’t going to the next level… he (or she) is just not that into you. “This might be the first feature film inspired by one line of dialogue from one episode of a television show,” remarks director Ken Kwapis.
In actuality, the phrase first inspired “Sex and the City” scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo to write what became the bestselling book He’s Just Not That Into You. “I didn’t come into this world hoping to write a relationship book,” explains Behrendt, who not only turned the phrase into a bestseller, but also hosted a no-nonsense talk show for the romantically challenged. “It all stemmed from an offhanded comment I made to somebody over lunch. Telling a woman that a guy who doesn’t call her doesn’t like her just seems like common sense.”
“I really loved that episode of `Sex and the City,’” says producer Nancy Juvonen. “Then I found my way to the book and I completely related to the idea of being practical about dating and relationships, and to all the myths that we sort of create for ourselves or for each other-all these things we make up because we’re not getting the phone call or the invitation that we really want.” Her thoughts immediately turned to film. “I had all of these ideas on how to turn this notion of `He’s just not that into you’ into an ensemble feature, without ever actually saying that line, and I knew I had to make this movie.”
At the time, she never imagined that the resulting ensemble would be a dream cast, including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Kris Kristofferson and Justin Long. But first, they needed a script. Juvonen describes the source material as anecdotal. “A lot of the book was, `I hear what you’re saying, Greg, however, I really think this guy did lose my number, because he really liked me when we met at the bar.’ And Greg’s response would be something along the lines of `Honey, he doesn’t like you, go for someone who does.’ But there wasn’t a real story to follow.” She remedied that by reaching out to the writing team of Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, with whom she had worked years before on the hit comedy “Never Been Kissed.”
“It was time to sort of get that band back together. We’d all grown for a good ten years, so I think we were all more dynamic and a little more clever and had a little more relationship experience to really pour into these stories. We started taking our own stories, and those from friends, and enhancing them. I think they’re just the best writers in town and it was really fun.”
Kohn continues. “We looked at the chapter headings: He’s just not that into you if he’s not calling you, … if he’s sleeping with someone else, … if he’s not marrying you, and so on. And that was really the biggest inspiration we took from the book, since the book had no actual characters or plot. We thought those chapter titles could each be an inspiration for an individual story. And that’s what grew into our ensemble movie.”
Kohn and Silverstein let the title be their guide throughout the writing process. “If a guy’s acting like he’s not into you, he’s not,” states Silverstein. “It’s a simple crystallization of something that’s very obvious. Greg’s advice in the book is always that it doesn’t matter why; it just is.”
Kohn adds, “We tend to over-analyze everything that happens in a relationship. And so even though the conversation that you had with that guy was maybe 45 seconds, the analysis afterwards can be four or five hours. So we felt that, for instance, with Gigi, Janine and Beth-the notion of these women being in an office together and they’re supposed to be working, but really what they’re doing is dissecting a phone message or deciding how to play the next phone message or whatever. That seems pretty real.” To direct, Juvonen called upon ensemble pro Ken Kwapis, who is accustomed to working with female-driven stories and interwoven relationships in such films as “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” and who is highly-regarded for TV’s “The Office.” Once he saw the material he didn’t hesitate.
“The reason the book was so popular of course is that it’s 100 percent relatable,” offers Kwapis. “So was the script. I just read it and went crazy for it. I was immediately struck by the fact that of these nine characters, I related to every one of them-all five women and all four men equally. And while it was very funny, everything that was comical in this story came out of behavior that was true, that was real, that was often embarrassing… things that I had done myself and that I thought would make the audience would say, `Oh, that’s me!’
“I did a lot of research to prepare for this film, long before I ever knew I’d be directing it,” Kwapis deadpans. “I went out on my first date when I was 16 and I got married when I was about 30. In-between the first date and getting married-even after getting married-I just made every possible mistake that a person could in trying to meet and fall in love.”
“The first thing Ken said was, `I’m not one of these characters, I’m all of them. I feel for all of them,’” recalls Juvonen of her initial conversation with the director. “We talked for two and a half hours and it was such a stimulating, perfect, fabulous conversation. It was like talking to an old friend.”
“When I met Nancy, we hit it off perfectly,” Kwapis agrees. “We both realized we wanted to make a film in which there were no good guys or bad guys, just people who make choices. We both felt this film should inspire conversation about the choices that the characters make, that the audience may disagree with the choice that someone makes but understands fully why he or she made it. Our mission was to present the characters in a way that confounded the viewer’s ability to judge them.”
“The film is about people misreading the signals between one another,” says Kwapis. “There are just as many men who pine after and are rebuffed by women as there are women who are being rebuffed by men. The men and women are equally confused in this film, the men make as many of the mistakes as women do; it’s wonderfully evenhanded that way.”
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He’s Just Not That Into You (2009)
Directed by: Ken Kwapis
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Carmen Pérez Røsnes, Sachiko Ishida, Alia Rhiana Eckerman, Jasmine Woods, Zoe Jarman
Screenplay by: Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein
Production Design by: Gae S. Buckley
Cinematography by: John Bailey
Film Editing by: Cara Silverman
Costume Design by: Shay Cunliffe
Set Decoration by: K.C. Fox
Art Direction by: Andrew Max Cahn
Music by: Cliff Eidelman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: February 6, 2009
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