| HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS |
 2003
- USA
Director: Donald Petrie - Reviewed by Eric
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days does involve a bet. This alone tells us much about its major plot points. Its inspiration, and potential genius, is that it also involves a second bet. It asks, What if both the characters were involved with each other as part of a bet? (Or, as I like to think of it, What if both the characters were lying, deceitful scumbags?) Kate Hudson plays Andie, a "How-To" writer for a women's magazine, whose latest assignment is to write an article on (say it with me) "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." She will find an unsuspecting guy and date him for 10 days, during which she will drive him away with all the things that women do wrong in relationships. Matthew McConaughey plays Ben, who is in advertising and somehow ends up making a bet with a client that he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days. Not so coincidentally, Andie and Ben both end up as each other's victims in their respective bets. Now this is a concept which could make a sharp, nasty, smart satire of relationships between men and women. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days never really attains "sharp," "nasty," or "smart" status, but it runs on its own inspired steam for about 45 minutes before breaking down completely and grinding to a halt in Romantic Comedy Formula Land, the same magical place where men chase women to airports and profess their love in front of everyone at the gate, and where Drew Barrymore can pass for a high schooler. I mentioned that making both the leads lying scumbags would be my idea of a good time. Well, too bad for us, Andie and Ben are not scumbags. (Ideally, I envision something like a cross between this movie and Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men.) They are pretty awful to one another, though, in a non-malcious sort of way, and the movie is fun as long as Andie and Ben are manipulating and using each other. Andie fills Ben's apartment with stuffed animals, feminine hygiene products, and a "love fern," names his penis "Princess Sophia," and makes him take her to a Celine Dion concert. Ben is forced to act as though he has absolutely no problem with any of this. Hudson is endlessly watchable because she's so obviously having fun, and has the rare ability to be silly and sexy and the same time. Unfortunately, the fun ends precisely where the romance begins. We all know that it's just a matter of time because Andie and Ben individually realize that, hey, they're actually falling for this person! By the time Ben invites Andie to the climactic gala, at which he will prove that he has won his bet, we are sorely disappointed to be herded back into the plot. I would advise anybody who goes to see this movie to get up and leave as soon as this scene comes onscreen, because everything that follows it is painfully cliched and predictable, and a complete disservice to everything that has come before it. Blah blah blah, they each find out that the other has been using them, blah blah blah, they are absolutely furious with each other, even though if they really came to love each other that much, wouldn't that at least talk about it before cutting each other completely out of their lives? Shouldn’t they both find it hilarious and, you know, MOVE ON? Hudson and McConaughey are both off-the-charts attractive and charismatic actors. Hudson's considerable comedic talents in particular remind me of her mother, Goldie Hawn (you know, before she became a scary-melting-mannequin-creature). Together, Hudson and McConaughey have a chemistry that's not too common nowadays, and they're a pleasure to see playing off each other. Ultimately, however, nothing that's good about the first half of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is worth all that's bad about the second half—a frustrating, drawn-out demonstration in squandering potential. Perhaps Andie's next article will be entitled "How to Lose in Audience in 45 Minutes." Maybe she can write this film off as research. |
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The use of bets and/or other forms of deceit as foundations for
"romantic" "comedy" has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. I
don't know if audiences are just getting way too cynical to buy two
characters meeting and falling and love in some other type of wacky
circumstance, or whether screenwriters are just getting lazy, but I've seen
far too many movies lately where the leads fall in love under the
pretense of a bet or mistaken identity, and then drag us through a boring and
mandatory crisis when the truth is finally revealed.
