Half of a cute movie. (Spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2003)

When I rented this movie, I didn't set myself up for Oscar material. I expected a cute movie with plenty of charm but not an extraordinary amount of brains. Sometimes, a flick like that is just what you're in the mood for.
What I got was in fact two movies: The desired cute one, which suddenly morphed into a brainless, trashy one.
The first half of the movie is enjoyable. Kate Hudson is adorable as a writer who is working on an article about all the things women do wrong in relationships. She is assigned to date a guy, drive him away, then write about it. Her victim is Matthew McConaughey. Unfortunately for her, he has made a bet that he can make her fall in love with him, so try as she may, she can't seem to drive him away.
Hudson's stereotypically-female antics in the first part of the movie are hilarious. She is possessive, whiny, overbearing, and obnoxious. I enjoyed the social commentary here on how women with low self-esteems act around men, then wonder why they get no respect. My favorite part- when they are in a restaurant together, and Hudson's character suddenly starts crying and says embarrassingly loudly, "I can't eat in front of you! You think I'm fat!" I thought to myself, 'I know women like that! I want to strangle them!'
Hudson is definitely adorable. McConaughey doesn't act so much as sit around looking hot in this movie. I would have cast someone else, but his job is to sit and look pretty for the camera, and he does that just fine.

A premise with hilarious potential is set up here. Then, suddenly, the writers drop the ball. The characters, of course, have begun to genuinely fall in love, and the writers don't seem to know how to resolve the plot. So, as seems to be the style these days, they resort to trashy, lowbrow, toilet humor and ruin the whole thing. The main heroes of course find out about each other's real motives, chaos sets in, and the stars somehow end up on stage singing a vulgar version of "You're so vain" to each other. At this point, all humor and intelligence is lost.
My advice: watch and enjoy the first part of the movie. As soon as you see Hudson and McConaughey return from visiting his character's parents' house, turn the movie off, and use your imagination to create your own ending.