How to keep an audience laughing for 10 days? Send them to see the latest romantic comedy, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Charming and hilarious, “How to” is a great date movie just in time for Valentine’s Day. While the movie’s genre may be romantic comedy, this is no chick flick. Giving both the male and female points of view to dating, guys and girls are sure to enjoy the film equally.
The movie features two talented and gorgeous lead characters in Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.
She plays Andie Anderson, a hardworking “How-to” columnists working at a Cosmo-like magazine called Composure.
While she favors writing about politics over pedicures, she swallows her pride once again to volunteer for a first-person chronicle of what happens to a new relationship when a woman does everything she’s taught not to.
Meanwhile, McConaughey plays Ben Barry, an ad executive trying to run a pricey campaign for a big diamond firm. To convince his boss he knows how to sell things to women, he makes a bet that he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days.
The meeting between Andie and Ben is a set up, however, when a rival ad team who know about Andie’s article suggest she be the one he woos, hoping he will fail miserably.
When Ben first meets Andie, she is everything a guy could ask for: Smart, pretty, personable, and a huge Knicks fan. And he’s got everything a girl wants: Suave with a great smile, great tan, and great abs. The two hit it off immediately and she goes back to his apartment on the first night they meet.
For the second date things start off well at a Knicks game until during the heated last minutes of the game, Andie decides to commence her evil plan. A little frustrated at the end of the date, Ben sucks it up and sends her off in a taxi, meanwhile scheming his next fall-in-love-with-me move.
Hudson shines in this laugh-out-loud comedy as she defies every rule women have made about what to, and not to do, in a relationship. From being needy, clingy and compulsive, to buying him a “love fern” that symbolizes their relationship, she is the epitome of a psycho girlfriend.
In any other situation like this, Ben would run screaming in the other direction. His campaign, however, and ego are riding on this one. And so he does his best to comply with each and every crazy antic Andie comes up with. He nearly draws the line when she uses Photoshop to create fictional photos of their wedding day, honeymoon and future children. While looking through the horrific scrapbook, Ben’s mother calls, but not for him- for Andie.
Since she has become friends with his mother, Ben invites Andie to spend a day with the family on Staten Island. Andie is on her best behavior and begins to admit to herself that she is falling for Ben. She is also given hints that maybe he may be having the same feelings as she.
Add to that one un-housetrained dog, a hilarious poker game, and a song and dance number of Carly Simon’s “You’re so Vain” performed by Hudson and McConaughey and you get one great funny movie.
Grade: B+
