Predictable With A Few Laughs Throw In Along The Way

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2003)

I had heard good things about this movie. "Hilarious," I was told. Well, not quite. It has a few chuckles along the way but for the most part I thought this was a pretty routine account of two people having to overcome obstacles to fall in love, etc., etc. Nothing really unique in the premise, in other words. Kate Hudson plays "Andie," a woman's magazine columnist who is writing a column about the mistakes women make in dating and is getting her material by picking out a guy, getting him to fall for her and then making all the mistakes to drive him away. Unknown to her, though, the guy she meets - "Ben," played by Matthew McConaughey - also has an agenda. He's an ad executive who makes a bet that he can make a woman fall in love with him in ten days, and if he does, he gains a huge advertising contract. (Is it believable that an ad agency of any credibility would assign a contract that way?) So you have Ben and Andie working at cross-purposes. She's falling for him but has to drive him away; he's being driven nuts by her but can't let her go. And so it goes.
It is amusing at times (sometimes downright funny, in fact.) But the whole premise of two people lying to each other had a rather nasty, mean-spirited feeling to it, which really comes out at the party when everything is discovered. Surprisingly, I found it a little bit dark as comedies go and just wasn't able to let myself enjoy it perhaps as much as some others have. That having been said, Hudson and McConaughey were absolutely perfectly cast for their roles. They were believable, and there was a real chemistry between the two of them which gave the movie a more realistic feel. But it really didn't leap out at me as I know it has some others. And with an ending that you see coming before you even start watching the movie (is there anyone who doesn't know how these funny romantic movies are going to turn out?) there really isn't any fun in the end; the only fun is the road you take to get there and that, I thought, had a few potholes along the way.
Largely on the strength of Hudson and McConaughey, this movie gets a 6/10.