Wanting more, and not getting it

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2003)

As a guy (even one who steps outside the lampooned trinity of guns, trucks and aliens) I was eager to see this film. On so many levels this radiated "romantic chick-flick" but the trailers did a great job of selling the immovable object and irresistible force qualities of the characters.
Great premise, great actors. "Hey," I figure, "maybe this will be one of those rare chick-flicks that even the men get a laugh out of."
I think it hit it's mark. I laughed out loud. I cringed in all the spots men were supposed to cringe at. I shook my head in gobsmacked disbelief at the scenes that had the women howling in laughter. Good movie.
But. The central premise of writing tight action for your characters is to ratchet up the tension and not give them an easy out. Herein lies the problem.
QUASI SPOILER BELOW!!
The situation the characters were in was a toughie. It appeared even the film's creators could not figure a way to get these two type-A personalities to forgive and forget. The climax was fair, but our boy Matthew never actually seems in danger of losing the big advertising account and dear Kate doesn't have to dump him to get her article. After their climactic argument and inevitable split, all it takes to repair the damage is for one of them to say "Hey, I think you should stay." "Ok." And that's it. It wouldn't be a romantic comedy if they *didn't* get back to together, but it should be under more convincing conditions than just having a couple days off to sit back and relax, shouldn't it?
Shouldn't it?
The film 7/10. Final five minutes: 3/10
One final note: ladies, the moral of this story is not that acting as mean and evil as possible will still earn you the love of the man you want if he's worth it. Please don't act as irritating as my wife did after this was over. She thought the lesson was that the teeth-grating guy-losing behaviour "was cute."