Comparison of He's Just Not That Into You and 17 Again

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015 Last Modified: 14 Dec 2017

People are always looking forward to watch romantic comedy movie as a way to spend time together with their beloved ones. In fact, romantic comedy is a general phrase for comedies that basically deal with the foolishness and misunderstanding of either young or middle aged lovers, in a light-hearted and happily manner which commonly inhibits serious parody. A typical plot of a romantic comedy is that two main characters, usually a man and a woman, come across, part away due to conflicts or other obstacles, then finally reunite. There are many options of romantic comedy movies to choose. The two romantic comedy movies which I choose to compare and contrast are “He's just not that into you” and “17 Again”. Even though both movies have the same genre, that is romantic comedy, but they are different in terms of settings, story lines, and moral value.

First and foremost, the settings of these two movies are different. “He's just not that into you” was set primarily in middle aged adult working environment at Baltimore, Maryland, USA where as “17 Again” was set in teenager high school kind of environment at Los Angeles, California, USA. The characters present in the “He's just not that into you” were mainly middle aged working adults and “17 Again” were teenagers and their parents.

Secondly, the most obvious dissimilarity of these movies is the story lines. “He's just not that into you” is about a few characters struggling with ups and downs of their love lives in a complicated kind of way. At the centre of these multiple stories in one movie is Gigi, a young woman who repeatedly misunderstands the signs that men had given her about their level of interest in her. She got her advice from Alex, a bar owner who prides himself on perceiving the ins and outs of the dating scene. Gigi's co-worker Janine found herself having difficulties in saving her marriage with her husband, Ben. On the other hand, Ben contemplated an affair with Anna, an attractive woman who was trying to make a career as a singer, from his wife. Another of Gigi's friends at work, Beth, enjoyed a fruitful, healthy relationship with Neil, but soon storm clouds hover over them because he has no interest in getting married. In “17 Again”, it is about an unhappy working man who had transformed into a 17 years old teen in order to solve his family problems regarding his teen children and wife. At the age of 17, Mike O'Donell was a successful person. Scarlett revealed she was pregnant before his basketball championship. After their marriage, Mike, a working man, complained the life he lost. One night, he saw a janitor standing on a bridge and jumped in after him. When he returned to his friend's house he realized he was 17 again. He decided to take this opportunity to save his marriage and fix his relationship with his two teenage children.

Furthermore, another dissimilarity that can be seen in both of these movies is the moral value. The moral value for the first movie is that we should not be a greedy person. In the movie, Ben who had an affair with Anna without his wife knowing eventually lost two of them in the end. For the second movie, the moral value emphasize on we should carry out our own responsibility regardless whether we are in a good or bad situation. In the movie, a young Mike O'Donell carried out his responsibility by marrying his girlfriend who was pregnant with his child when they were both 17 years old.

Here are the three main differences between “He's just not that into you” and “17 Again”. As we can see, they break down to setting, story line and moral value that can be learnt through watching the movie. In a nutshell, both movies have their pros and cons despite they have the same genre.