Has its moments

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2003)

Andy (Kate Hudson) is a columnist for a woman's magazine--to cheer up a depressed, jilted girlfriend she proposes an article on getting a guy to love her--and then do everything wrong to get him to dump her in 10 days. Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is an ad executive who wants to do a campaign for diamonds. His boss says no--what does a man know about love and diamonds? Ben says he will get a woman to fall in love with him--in 10 days. Guess what happens.
There are two problems with this movie--the script and McConaughey. The script isn't believable for one second and it has such unpleasant characters--are we supposed to feel sympathetic to Andy and Ben who would stoop to manipulating an innocent person for their jobs? Also it does have some very funny lines but has even more unfunny, labored ones. McConaughey is all wrong for a romantic comedy--he is very handsome and has a great body but he seems very ill at ease with the material. He both overacts and underacts and has no sense of comic timing. And him and Hudson have about as much chemistry as Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis had in "Top Gun"--meaning no chemistry at all. Their kisses looked painful.
The real reason to see this is Hudson. She's beautiful, bright, energetic and one hell of an actress and comedian. She's absolutely hysterical when she tries to drive McConaughey crazy. Also when begins to fall in love (I don't think I'm giving anything away) she's totally believable.
Worth seeing for Hudson and some great lines. Otherwise--routine.