February 7, 2003 | Have you ever noticed how many romantic comedies – particularly romantic comedies set in Manhattan — revolve around assumed identities or improbable wagers? The people who made How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days apparently are aware of this oddity. At least, that’s the most logical explanation for their decision to up the ante by using an imposture and a wager to propel their tasty date-movie confection.
Here’s the pitch: Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson), a lovely young how-to columnist for a faux-Cosmopolitan magazine, proposes a how-not-to article geared toward overly desperate singletons. To demonstrate the folly of being too possessive or too presumptuous, too wiggy or too clingy, she plans to make some guy, any guy, fall in love with her. After that, she’ll chase the guy away – within ten days – by doing all the things that women in love should never do if they want to remain loved.
It seems like a great idea, but only until the irresistible force collides with an immovable object.
Enter Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey), a Texas-twangy hunk who plots media campaigns for a prestigious New York advertising agency. (The screenwriters feel the need to explain why a Lone Star native is living and working in New York. It obviously never occurred to them that, sometimes, Texans simply move to New York, and manage to find jobs there.) Ben is a whiz when it comes to finding new and improved methods of selling beer to regular guys. But he wants to expand his field of expertise by working on a campaign to sell diamonds to women.
Trouble is, Ben’s boss (Robert Klein) feels Ben, who’s chronically commitment-phobic, doesn’t have sufficient empathy with the female psyche. Ben disagrees, of course. And to prove he has the right insights, he places a bet that he can find some woman, any woman, then make her fall in love with him – and, more important, stay in love with him – for at least ten days.
So, OK, an advertising executive and a magazine writer go into a bar…
Loosely based on a seriocomic dating guide of the same title, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is pleasantly perky fluff, utterly predictable but surprisingly amusing. To keep things light and lively, director Donald Petrie (Miss Congeniality) slyly evokes the retro spirit of those glossy “sex comedies” that provided steady employment for Doris Day and Rock Hudson four decades ago. In fact, any resemblance to Pillow Talk is probably not coincidental.
Most of the movie’s charm stems from the chemistry generated by its two lead players: McConaughey has a pleasing knack for conveying frustration and consternation at various levels of amusing intensity, while Hudson takes delightfully shameless glee in doing her worst to drive away a guy who doesn’t want to be driven. Their finest, funniest moment: As Ben struggles to disguise his mounting horror, Andie cheerfully drops by his apartment – unannounced, of course – to display computer-generated images of what she thinks their children will look like. All this, mind you, after they’ve been dating for about three days.
Add a few very funny supporting players to the mix – take note of Adam Goldberg as Ben’s droll co-worker, and Bebe Neuwirth as Andie’s velvet steamroller of an editor – and you have the kind of instantly disposable but exceptionally agreeable trifle that’s best enjoyed with one’s significant other, preferably before or after an intimate dinner for two.
