Piece of paper chase

Painful questions lurk behind the popularity of He's Just Not That Into You | Megan Basham

New Line Cinema

While watching the star-studded romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (rated PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language), it's impossible not to wonder whether this uncomfortable advice was something women needed to hear a few decades ago. The line is based on a comment from a character on Sex and the City that later became the title of a best-selling self-help book for women. And like Sex and the City, the movie centers on a group of single women trying to find and keep love, albeit in Baltimore rather than the Big Apple.

Each character represents a struggling archetype on the modern dating scene. Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), who narrates the film, becomes obsessed with every man who shows the slightest interest in her. She calls them, "accidentally" drops by their favorite hangouts, and generally makes herself so available to them the guys are left running toward the nearest exit. Beth (Jennifer Aniston) has been in a serious relationship for over seven years with a live-in boyfriend (Ben Affleck) who won't commit, insisting marriage is "only a piece of paper." At one point Beth tearfully asks her boyfriend if he ever plans to marry her only to be met with awkward silence. Femme fatale Anna (Scarlett Johansson) seems confident, but after starting a relationship with a married man on the advice of her friend Mary (Drew Barrymore), she allows herself to be humiliated in the grossest possible way. And Janine (Jennifer Connelly), wife of said married man, realizes her marriage may be on the rocks in part because she strong-armed her husband into proposing years before.