Book vs. Movie: He's Just Not That Into You
By Russ Bickerstaff
February 16, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
And in this corner: the Movie. A 112-year-old kid born in France to a guy named Lumiere and raised primarily in Hollywood by his uncle Charlie "the Tramp" Chaplin. This young upstart has quickly made a huge impact on society, rapidly becoming the most financially lucrative form of storytelling in the modern world.
Both square off in the ring again as Box Office Prophets presents another round of Book vs. Film.
He's Just Not That Into You
In 2004, comic writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo wrote a self-help book for single women that was named after a line of dialogue from an episode of Sex In The City. The book, which asserts that the reader has an inherent desirability, also lets her know that it's okay to stop giving excuses for guys who really don't ant to be dating them. By giving modern women permission to take control of their lives by looking for someone who really wants to be with them, Behrendt and Tucillo's book fast became a best-seller. A big-budget film adaptation of an anecdotal self-help book seems a bit odd, but the film rights to the book have fluttered off to Warner Bros., where the loose gist of the ideas in the book have crystallized into a film starring some of Hollywood's most recognizable young faces. Both are destined to have their impact, but which one is destined to be remembered better?
The Book
At less than 200 pages, He's Just Not That Into You is light enough to be able to be read in a single sitting and smart enough to have a format that discourages this. In a series of rigorously formatted chapters, we see a series of examples of relationship situations that are outlined in letters to co-author Greg Behrendt. Behrendt then weighs-in on how the relationship isn't really a relationship because the guy's not really interested in her. Chapters cover numerous reasons why a guy wouldn't be into dating the reader (he's not calling, he's not sleeping with her, he's married, etc.) while simultaneously making sure that she knows how hot, sexy and inherently desirable she is.
Each chapter is split into the following parts:
1) An intro section setting up the definition of the kind of situation the chapter is going to explore.
2) A series of letters to Greg Behrendt outlining different excuses women make for being in those kinds of relationships followed by Greg's responses to them.
3) An "it's so simple" paragraph that briefly describes why the reader shouldn't have to put up with things the way they are.
4) A "here's why it's so hard" chapter written by co-author Liz Tucillo that addresses some of the hazy gray areas of the chapter's subject. This is extremely important to the book, as much of Behrendt's perspective comes from a world of simple black and white realities.
5) A "this is what it should look like" paragraph outlining what a functional version of what an actual relationship would look like without the type of problem discussed in the chapter.
6) A brief "Greg, I get it!" letter by a character who now understands what the author is saying in this chapter and has been able to move on from it.
7) A "what you should've learned in this chapter" page featuring all the major points discussed.
And finally,
8) A "super-good, really helpful workbook" section that encourages the reader to do something that allows them to symbolically interact with the chapter's central theme.
As you can imagine, the bite-sized nature of a book that is less than 200 pages and packaged into such small morsels works to portion out the reading of the book so as to reinforce the book's central ideas, using gradual repetition of a variety of different topics centered around the theme. Because repetition is absolutely essential to learning, this is kind of a clever format for the book.
Before I go forward with my criticism of the book, my wife urges me to point something out — I am a married heterosexual man. My wife and I have been together since roughly the time the book was published. I am NOT the target audience of this book. Far be it from me to point out the numerous, gaping, possibly unhealthy flaws in a self-help book that has doubtlessly changed the lives of so many women for the better. The book's heart is clearly in the right place and I agree in principle with what it's trying to say, but...
The repetitious nature of Behrendt's book seems a little over-done, especially when one considers how simple and free from ambiguity his perspective is. It's true that someone shouldn't have to date someone who really isn't into dating them, but love just isn't love without the complexity. Painting such a simple picture over and over again denies the kind of complexity that makes people so desirable to begin with. And while I applaud Behrendt's effort to tell the reader how desirable she is, the statement comes across as being more than a bit insincere without acknowledging the flaws that give any person the complexity that makes them so desirable.
Finally, the book's biggest flaw seems to be the writing itself. It's riddled with clichés and a notably weak humor that amplifies the repetitious nature of each chapter.
The Movie
He's just not that into you if he didn't bother to write the screenplay.
He's a writer. He wrote a book. He can write a screenplay.
Oh, Greg Behrendt's been really busy since the book came out, but that was a few years ago and if he doesn't have a little more time for the one thing he's written that been successful, then he's probably not that interested in what he's saying.
The "He's Very Busy" Excuse
Dear Russ,
The guy who wrote the book I'm based off of has had very little to do with me since that time. He didn't write my screenplay, but he's been really busy with his own projects. He took enough time out of his busy schedule to make a cameo appearance in me but I want more of a connection with him than that.
--He's Just Not That Into You - The Movie
Dear Jilted Film,
Behrendt does have other projects going on — because he's not that into you. The tone of the book is boring and repetitious for a reason. He seemed kind of reluctant to write it to begin with. Being a huge ensemble film with plenty of clever, witty actors and actresses filling out your scenes, you're far too good for him anyway. Let him do the rockabilly thing with his band and tour with his awful stand-up act. You're a lot better than him anyway.
It's So Simple
I'm not sure what the arrangement might have been between Behrendt and Tucillo with the film rights for the film, but the book has enough narrative spark to it that they could have written the script themselves if they had the desire to. And if the decision was out of their hands, they could have lobbied the producers to let them write the script and probably would have gotten to do so. Their names are so firmly attached to the title and a narrative film based off a self-help book has such a tenuous attachment to it to begin with that the film probably would have crashed if the authors hadn't been supportive. The picture that emerges is that they just didn't care about the film. If they cared about the book, they would have written the script.
Here's Why It's So Hard
Written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the script shows a considerable amount of promise. They also wrote Never Been Kissed, which may have had an overwhelming romantic comedy cheesiness to it, but there were some very fine moments in that film with very clever lines. Kohn and Silverstein's problem here is that they have to wrap a romantic comedy script around a self-help book that lacks any sense of the kind of subtlety that makes for decent romantic comedy. Here, the source material is actually something of a liability for the film.
This Is What It Looked Like
Kohn and Silverstein muddle through the process beautifully, capturing snatches of really bright comedy and doing it far more reliably than they managed with Never Been Kissed. The film's story consists of a group of characters in Baltimore who represent the various relationship dysfunctions mentioned in the book. The ensemble features a marriage-phobic Ben Affleck character in a relationship with a Jennifer Aniston character, a somewhat naïve Scarlett Johansson character having an affair with a married man who happens to be married to a Jennifer Connelly character. There are a lot of interesting interactions going on that would be better served by a film that wasn't also trying to keep with the branding of a best-selling self-help book.
The Verdict
While being a book that has, no doubt, helped quite a few women get out of negative relationships, He's Just Not That Into You is slow, poorly-written and repetitious. It does, however, serve its purpose quite well. On the other hand, it would serve as a poor basis for a film were it not for the fact that its gross simplifications of romantic relations weren't made infinitely more complex by a pair of competent script writers in a film populated by the kind of acting talent that can deliver sophisticated comedy and heartfelt emotion. Using a number of complex characters we only get to see briefly, Kohn and Silverstein's plot ends up living in all of those gray areas the book so staunchly avoids. The book may end up being far more known than the movie, but the movie is far more sophisticated than the book.