When I walked into the movie theater to watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days I will admit I was a little skeptical on whether or not this movie was worth the $7.50 I had to pay to see it but there was nothing else playing worth watching so I took my chances. Walking out of the theater when the movie released I realized it was the best $7.50 I had spent in a while.
Andie Anderson (Hudson) , the how-to girl for Composure Magazine, agrees to write a firsthand account of all the things women do to drive away men; she has to find a guy, make him fall in love with her, then get dumped--all in 10 days. But she's clearly in the wrong place, because she wants to write about politics and the environment, which fails to impress her hard-driving editor (Bebe Neuwirth). .
Benjamin Barry's (McConaughey) colleagues bet him that he can't make a woman fall in love with him in -- you guessed it -- 10 days. He'll pick someone out and stick with her no matter how hideously she behaves. The payoff has something to do with an ad campaign for diamonds, for which he's competing with two co-workers (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow).
It is immediately clear how this film will end, but it is the 90 minutes in-between that are truly filled with some big laughs. There are so many moments in the film where you just cringe and think to yourself "Ouch! This is so mean," all the while enjoying it deviously. The subtext is amusing at first, as Andie throws herself at Ben, and Ben, trying to be a gentleman, tells her he wants to take it slow. Andie quickly turns needy to the point of being psychotic, moving into Ben's apartment, cramming it with teddy bears and tampons, and throwing a tantrum in front of his poker buddies. .
Even though it's a romantic comedy, director Donald Petrie needed to keep one foot in reality; he makes the mistake of letting Andie's behavior spiral too violently out of control to be believable.
