New romance When considering He’s Just Not That Into You as part of the romantic comedy genre, it is most beneficial to consider it in terms of the evolution of the genre, particularly across the 1980s and 90s. Peter Evans and Celestino Deleyto suggest that the genre is subject to several shifts beginning in the late 1970s with a cycle of “nervous romances” that “betray an intense longing for the restitution of faith in the stability of the heterosexual couple as some kind of bulwark against the modern world” (Krutnik in Evans and Deleyto 2). Krutnik argues that this begins with Annie Hall (1977) and continues through to the late 1980s. Despite the term’s extended history, it is possible to see elements of this tendency in He’s Just Not That Into You as the film depicts two troubled long term relationships. Firstly, Ben’s (Cooper) marriage to Janine (Connelly) crumbles when he has an affair with Anna (Johannson), resulting in divorce. Ultimately, Janine realises she is better off alone which means her relationship is a failure. Secondly, Beth’s relationship with Neil (Affleck) is tested when he refuses to marry her. Had this narrative thread remained true to the book, where Behrendt tells the aforementioned Danielle that she should leave her partner and find someone who will marry her, this would have embodied the ‘nervous romance’. Neil states that he won’t marry Beth because he does not believe in marriage, thus questioning a pillar of heterosexual union. Nevertheless, despite a convincing argument not to marry, they ultimately do. This shows the film as symptomatic of the “new romance”, and thus inscribes it into the shifting landscape of the new romantic comedy (Neale in Evans and Deleyto 2).

The trend of the ‘new romance’ began in the late 1980s and represented a “frank return to the old fashioned values of traditional heterosexual romance” (Evans and Deleyto 2), embodied in popular films of the time such as Dirty Dancing (1987), Ghost (1990) and Pretty Woman (1990). These films are populist and escapist and “for all the tensions and aggressiveness [the films] stick firmly to the traditional happy ending in which marriage is still perceived as the best option” (Evans and Deleyto 6). Many of these ‘new romances’ can be categorised as showing the ‘coming of age’ of their female characters who are sassy and realise their independence, such as Baby in Dirty Dancing who breaks free from her parents. Gigi (Goodwin) in He’s Just Not That Into You arguably does the same once she acknowledges the truth about dating. However, as Gigi does with Alex, all of these women ultimately move from being reliant on one patriarchal figure to being reliant on another. Once it seems as though she has finally grasped that she is not the exception to the rule, Alex, in true romantic comedy fashion, races to find heterosexual union in the closing moments of the film. By rushing to tell her that she is his exception, however, he effectively denies the film’s central idea. It seems that, despite its questioning of marital norms, He’s Just Not That Into You is a ‘new romance’. Because of this, the idea loses the (radical) potency it displayed on appearance in Sex and the City and in book form.

Cash break zero and the ensemble cast An important element of the film is the ensemble cast, especially a high number of established, well-known stars. The film had a reported budget of $40m which, for a star-led film, is rather small (with similarly star-led films Mamma Mia! (2008) and It’s Complicated (2009) reporting respective budgets of $52m and $82m). Though it is unclear as to exactly how much each of the film’s stars can command, it can be assumed that several of them can demand a high salary as a result of appearing in commercially successful films. For example, across the past seven years, Aniston’s films have grossed an average of nearly $80m and Affleck’s have grossed an average of nearly $50m, with Aniston coming second in a Forbes list of highest paid actresses in 2009 (Pomerantz). It is possible that Drew Barrymore, the film’s producer, had some influence on encouraging the stars to sign up for a reduced fee, but it is perhaps more likely that He’s Just Not That Into You is one of many films in the past two years that has paid a smaller outright fee to its stars while offering them a cut of the profits. Michael Cieply notes that: “the fashionable deal now is called ‘CB zero’. It stands for ‘cash-break zero’, and refers to an arrangement under which the star or filmmaker begins collecting a share of profits after the studio has reached the break-even point” (Cieply). If this was the case, this may have proved more fruitful than a standard outright payment as the film grossed $90m domestically, more than doubling its budget. This management of funds is an illustration of how and why He’s Just Not That Into You can showcase mainstream stars on a modest budget, highlighting the film’s commitment towards the consolidation of Hollywood and the independents. Furthermore, according to Michael Cieply, “stars don’t resonate with the ‘what’s next’ crowd […]. They attract an over-30 audience, which is going to the movies less in an impaired economy” (Cieply). It can be argued that the film uses stars in order to target these older viewers, as it is this group that make up a large number of the Sex and the City audience. Aniston and Barrymore also hold appeal for older audiences due to their roles in 1990s films and television series such as The Wedding Singer (1998) and Friends (1994-2004). The economic downturn has meant that this group no longer have as much disposable income for non-essential leisure activities, of which going to the cinema is one. However, through clever casting of particular stars He’s Not That Into You was able to draw an audience.

While the film’s ways of organising actor payment may be new, the idea of the ensemble cast that it showcases is not. One of the first films to use a large cast in a similar way was Nashville (1975) and it has grown in popularity since the 1990s. It can be categorised in two ways, ensemble casts and ensemble star casts. In the last ten years, ensemble casts have most commonly been seen in high school teen comedies such as American Pie (1999) and horror spoofs such as Scary Movie (2000). More recently, director and producer Judd Apatow has chosen to use ensemble casts in several of his films, including Superbad (2007). Ensemble star casts, however, though less common, have tended to appear within the romantic comedy genre. However, this has mostly been outside of Hollywood in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Love Actually (2003), both generally classified as British. The most obvious reason for this is cost. Though these films can be considered star-led ensembles, this is by British standards – aside from Hugh Grant and possibly Keira Knightly, the British stars that appear were at the time known mostly for their work in television and were not (well) known in America. As such, their participation would not have cost as much as their Hollywood counterparts. However, perhaps following the lead of He’s Just Not That Into You, 2010 saw the release of Valentine’s Day (2010), an ensemble star film with even bigger names and a substantially bigger budget of $52m. Like He’s Just Not That Into You, Valentine’s Day more than doubled its budget in domestic gross takings, having made $110m by the end of its run. Perhaps taking into consideration the lack of star pull that Cieply refers to, the makers of Valentine’s Day showcased a plethora of stars to entice audiences of all ages, which, according to the gross, was a success. As already noted, Cieply suggests that star-led films are typically enticing to the thirty plus audience, but Valentine’s Day seeks to entice the youth market by casting Twilight (2008) heart-throb Taylor Lautner and teen idol Taylor Swift. The quick succession of He’s Just Not That Into You and Valentine’s Day, and the success of the two, offers a formula for the star-led ensemble romantic comedy, leading to a continuing cycle, including Grown Ups (2010) and What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012).

Flower Films He’s Just Not That Into You is produced by Flower Films, a production company owned by actress Drew Barrymore and her business partner Nancy Juvonen. This is the tenth film to be produced by Barrymore to date and was released in the same year as her directorial debut Whip It (2009). Barrymore stars in the film, as she does in all of the films she has produced. The move by the majors into producing more niche films, a position previously held by the independents, has tempted indie companies such as Flower Films “to go for bigger budgets [and] more mainstream topics” (Roddick), thus leaving the old view of independent films outdated. The film is presented by New Line Cinema, a company which incidentally presented both Sex and the City: The Movie and Valentine’s Day. New Line is a subsidiary of Time Warner, a company which also controls the American cable network HBO, which in turn made and broadcast all six seasons of Sex and the City. The fact that Time Warner operates both companies means that it is easy to exploit the connection between them for marketing purposes, a vital component in the film’s success. The film brings together both big players in the entertainment industry and smaller contributors, again highlighting tension between mainstream and independent filmmaking within one project.

These tensions also translate to the film’s politics. He’s Just Not That Into You negotiates left- and right-wing politics both within the narrative and with regard to the production companies. Drew Barrymore is a Democrat who campaigned during the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections. She has spoken in interviews about encouraging young people into politics (Silverman) and even made a documentary about how best to do this entitled Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start (2004). Time Warner, however, is arguably a right-wing company as it donated the maximum amount of $250,000 to President Bush’s 2005 reelection campaign. With two opposing agendas at the heart of production, it is not surprising that He’s Just Not That Into You seeks to live with contradiction. In terms of the characters, the vast majority have typically left-wing careers, such as Anna, who is a singer, Mary (Barrymore), who works in the media and Beth, Janine and Gigi, who work for an advertising company. In this sense, the characters’ politics could be said to be left-leaning. And, the initial message behind the film’s title and the message that the book communicates is that it is better to be single than to be in a relationship with the wrong person. However, although he occasionally alludes to it, Behrendt never once seriously advocates that a woman should remain single. He advises that if their partner is just not that into them, women should “move their romantic inclinations onto a more suitable future husband” (Behrendt and Tuccillo 14) and “go meet someone more worthy of [their] affections” (Behrendt and Tuccillo 50). Singledom, then, is a passing phase rather than a lifestyle choice. As such, the book and film’s commitment to heterosexual relationships within a patriarchal society is more attuned to right-wing thinking. What is evident here is that the politics within and outside of He’s Just Not That Into You are contradictory and that the individual politics of the film’s producers and parent companies cannot solely categorise the film. Considering this in conjunction with the film’s alternative practices in relation to budget and actor payment, as well as its fluctuating approach to romantic comedy norms and the utilisation of the star cast, it becomes apparent that He’s Just Not That Into You often employs opposing notions in order to create a nuanced and diverse film. In an industry in which often pits the big-budget against the independent and the conventional against the alternative, this film attempts a balance of conflicting ideals.