Romantic comedies run to the implausible, the irritating, the derivative and the badly written and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is no exception. This one, however -- despite a lame premise, an unnecessarily complicated plot and a running time that suggests the filmmakers are deluded -- is saved by the casting.
In the annals of heroic deeds performed in the world of film, let us now enter the names Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey for the feat of carrying a big fat movie on the strength of their perfect smiles. Hudson, in particular, is so comedic good at what she does that you could almost forget the drivel in which she and McConaughey have to operate.
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is the story of two people with hidden agendas: She needs to find a boyfriend and drive him away (in 10 days) by whining and clinging, so she can then write a how-to column in a vacuous women's magazine to help other women eschew the universal "don'ts" of dating. He has to meet a woman and get her to fall in love with him (in 10 days) in order to win a bet and land an important advertising account. They meet. They like each other.
Both think they can achieve their 10-day goal in a fairly painless fashion.
Then Hudson's character begins in earnest with the whining and clinging, and that's the source of most of the humour in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. From the endless phone calls to the cute 'baby' dog he doesn't want to the his 'n' hers clothing, the idiotic talk of marriage and children, the chick flick date, and the ruination of his boys' night out, she stops at nothing to drive the man away. But he can't go. He'll lose the bet if he ditches her.
You can see where this is going, like, yuhh, underlined and with big red arrows. Once the story moves to that mush of love and misunderstanding and then love and understanding (hurrah!), the entire picture unravels pretty quickly. Alas, there's still a lot of extraneous and disjointed carry-on before it's all over.
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days has enough laughs and silly subplots (Bebe Neuwirth is cruelly funny as a Helen Gurley Brown-ish magazine editor) to keep you looking, but in the end it's the work done by the two leads that saves the film. Those who are not fans of Hollywood romantic comedy lite will not have their minds changed by How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. It could help you become a serious fan of Kate Hudson or Matthew McConaughey, though.
(This film is rated PG)
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