How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Starring: Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Kathryn Hahn, Annie Parisse, Adam Goldberg, Thomas Lennon, Michael Michele, Robert Klein
Directed by: Donald Petrie
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2003
Times Seen:
Tim: 2
Summary: To write a story for her magazine, a writer (Kate Hudson) decides to date a guy and, purposely making the most common relationship mistakes, drive him away in 10 days. Unknown to her, her date's (Matthew McConaughey) coworkers make a bet that he can't get her to fall in love with him in 10 days.
Review:
Tim: This might be a bit surprising, but I actually really enjoy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I'm really not prejudiced against the romantic comedy genre. If a film is good, I'll give it the credit it deserves. I actually found this to be a funny, touching, entertaining movie. The leads are good and it's a fun movie to watch.
My favorite aspect of the film is the central premise- a woman does everything in her power to drive a guy away, while the guy is doing everything in his power to make the woman fall for him. It's funny because of the extremes both parties go to. I like the idea of these two strong, driven people both working really hard to get what they want and not giving in to the other. That creates a pretty interesting competitive dynamic between two people who are also building a "relationship" among the craziness happening all around them.
While Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson have had their share of poor movies (look at Fool's Gold for example), in this film, they worked extremely well together. The writing gave them interesting characters and I thought they had some legitimate on screen chemistry. They were fun to watch together, both in a romantic sense and in the sense of two people driving each other crazy. I enjoyed their interactions on screen. Most of the biggest laughs come with Hudson's repeated attempts to drive McConaughey crazy. The things she puts him through are so funny because they're all rooted in actual mistakes women make (obviously not to the extreme shown here, though). Whether that is emasculating a guy, not recognizing the importance we place on sports, doing baby talk, being clingy, or a host of other offenses, it is really entertaining to see a woman purposely making these "mistakes" and the guy doing his best to take the punishment. I really found that aspect of the movie entertaining.
What really made a difference to me is when McConaughey takes Hudson to meet his family. This was surprisingly powerful and spoke volumes about each of the characters. The scenes here were among my favorite of the film and went a long way toward helping me see that this film was better than many of the throwaway romantic comedies coming out of Hollywood. While generally light and fluffy, the film has a little more weight to it than you would expect.
While this film is obviously not a classic (it has a few too many cliches, for example), it still represents a smart, well made romantic comedy. It kept me entertained, and while predictable, it didn't feel like a chore to sit through. The movie was funny and kept my attention. This is one of the better romantic comedies I've seen. I admit that I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did, but on repeat viewings, it still holds up.
Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5
If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Fool's Gold, Almost Famous, 27 Dresses