He's Just Not That Into You - Chick Flick or Great Flick?

There's a certain amount of shame involved with admitting that you liked a chick flick. Any endorsement needs to come with a disclaimer, like, "well, it's a real chick flick, but it was fun." I just read a scathing article by Lisa Schwarzbaum in E.W. complaining about chick flicks being demeaning, and I'm here to make the case for chick flicks.

He's Just Not That Into You is a typical chick flick. The main female characters blunder through, painfully telling themselves that guys lost their number or have been too busy to call. Ginnifer Goodwin is the worst offender in the movie, stalking man after man in a desperate search for a mate. Drew Barrymore is unable to meet a man IRL (in real life) because of her over-dependence on online technology. And Scarlett Johansson talks herself into dating a married man while Jennifer Connelly talks herself into staying with her cheating husband.

It all sounds painful, and it was, at times, but it was also highly entertaining. Chick Flicks are not meant to portray women as they really are. No one really sits there checking their cell phone that obsessively, although it might feel as though we do. The characters in chick flicks are just caricatures, exaggerating male and female traits, to make us laugh at ourselves. Although I spent a great deal of the movie cringing at Ginnifer Goodwin's complete cluelessness, I was rooting for her to find true love, although true love in chick flicks is a comic in its over-simplification.

I'll stop trying to be philosophical now that I've gotten my rant out of the way. It's just that I loved He's Just Not That Into You! The cast is star-studded and fantastic. Ben Affleck is finally back in a credible, lovable role. He had real chemistry with Jennifer Aniston. The soundtrack is amazing, so many fun and fresh tunes. Drew Barrymore has some hilarious monologues about dating and technology. And poor Ginnifer Goodwin needs to stop doing these roles where she completely lacks good judgement, first by entering in a polygamist marriage and then by playing the most desperate single woman in He's Just Not that Into You.

So send out some emails, get some girlfriends together, and go see He's Just Not That Into You. Although it won't be sweeping the Oscar race next year, I guarantee that you will walk out smiling.