He's Just Not That Into You (PG-13) **

Drew Barrymore stars as Mary and Kevin Connolly stars as Conor in New Line Cinema's romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You, " a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Darren Michaels/MCT)

 

By Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald

If I went out on a date with He's Just Not That Into You, I would smile and be polite and say ''It was nice meeting you,'' at the end of the evening. I wouldn't slag it behind its back. But I wouldn't call it up for a second date, either.

Inspired by an amusing self-help book that was inspired by an episode of Sex and the City, the movie throws together a bunch of 20- and 30-somethings pursuing relationships with varying degrees of success in Baltimore. (Note: This Baltimore is not the urban, gritty Baltimore of The Wire; this Baltimore is upscale and excessively white.)

Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin of Big Love) desperately wants a boyfriend, but her latest date Conor (Kevin Connolly of Entourage) isn't calling her back, not because she acts like a stalker (though she does), but because he's distracted by his sexy singer friend Anna (Scarlett Johansson). Anna likes Conor, but her head has been turned by a chance meeting with charming Ben (Bradley Cooper), who's married to the somewhat controlling Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and best friends with Neil (Ben Affleck), who seems like a nice guy but refuses to marry his live-in girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston). The fact that you won't remember any of these names for more than a minute should indicate exactly how much depth each character displays.

Justin Long plays a bar manager who befriends Gigi on her quest to understand guys -- he's basically the voice of author Greg Behrendt, finding many ways to explain that if a guy isn't calling you, he's -- well, you get the idea. Also lurking on the fringes is Drew Barrymore as an ad rep who natters away about meeting men on MySpace, which a gay friend says is ''the new booty call.'' MySpace, as anyone over the age of 5 knows, is not the ''new'' anything; it's merely a sign that He's Just Not That Into You has been languishing on the shelf long enough to collect all sorts of pop-culture dust.

Still, while director Ken Kwapis (License to Wed) is no Woody Allen, the movie has a couple of things going for it. Something cute develops between Goodwin and Long, and the screenwriters give a long overdue shout-out to the underrated John Hughes film Some Kind of Wonderful (you know you love it). Kris Kristofferson appears in the unlikeliest of roles (Aniston's dad), and, most happily, Kwapis does not force us to listen to ScarJo sing. He's Just Not That Into You may be shallow, and you may be able to predict whose lives will magically mesh in the end, but at least we are spared that indignity, one far worse than the silence of merely waiting for the phone to ring.

Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Kevin Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore.

Director: Ken Kwapis.

Screenwriters: Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein. Based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

Producer: Nancy Juvonen

A Warner Bros. release. Running time: 129 minutes. Sexual content, brief strong language. Playing at area theaters.

Speak up!