How to Lose an Audience in 10 Minutes

Rating: 3/10 (6 February 2003)

Women repeat the phrase `How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' over and over again as if it's a brilliant concept in the film of the same name directed by Donald Petrie. Screenwriters Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, and Burr Steers' unimaginative choice for the title is indicative of their collective writing ability, but one exits the theater wishing they had more appropriately dubbed this comedic disaster `How to Lose an Audience in 10 Minutes.' The story is expectedly built on clichés, not a criticism as it is inherent to the subject matter and a truth that applies to many films in this genre, but the writers rarely discover creative ways to turn hackneyed ideas into humorous situations. The dialogue often lacks ingenuity, the scenarios are much too familiar, and the script is nearly void of an honesty that makes people want to believe in predictably trite romantic comedies.
Headlines that lure women to purchase fashion and beauty magazines fall off the covers and slide across the screen as morning activity ensues at Composure, the fastest growing women's magazine in the country. Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) finishes a political masterpiece at her computer, and her colleague commends the article but reminds Anderson that she works for a publication that prefers articles about fitness, cosmetic surgery, and shoes. The clientele just isn't interested in poverty, religion or the environment. Poor Anderson. Straight out of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism with a column of her own and a schedule and salary that affords her plenty of free time both during the day and at night, a 5th Avenue apartment in Manhattan, and extra cash to spend on Knicks playoff tickets. Perhaps taking a more typical beginning journalism job covering the crime beat and town meeting after town meeting would have satisfied her desire to write about things that matter. The staff meeting at Composure provides a bit of enjoyable light humor and a peek into an exaggerated display of new-age office tactics, but introducing Anderson in this context with her firm agenda in such a flimsy atmosphere is awkward and unbelievable.
Single-life lover Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey), how cute--two A's for Andie and two B's for Ben, accepts a bet offered by his boss and associates at the advertising agency, which pairs him with Anderson. The couple plunges into a romantic relationship, and both characters conceal their real objective after agreeing that all is fair in love and war. The conversation that takes Anderson and Barry out of the bar and into the restaurant where they feast on lobster and get to know one another is the first glimpse of a witty and refreshing exchange; enjoy these fleeting moments as they are the exceptions rather than the rule. Laughable moments do return, however, in full force during late-middle scenes in this nearly two hour film. The first dinner date at Barry's apartment, the boys' night poker scene, and the couple's therapy session all rescue the drowning viewer from the depths of ennui.
But even these rare moments cannot save How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Nevertheless, the film does find some redemption in its two lead actors. Individually, Hudson and McConaughey add spark to dull words and circumstances. Together they are dynamite, and one laments the fact that they were not endowed with a script that matches their talent. Hopefully they will reunite at another time--after both actors prove themselves in other roles that better display their abilities. In this film, though, both performances are expressive, intelligent, and warrant acclaim for adding something laudatory to a film that should have been canned and hidden away forever out of public sight or left on the cutting room floor.
One does not learn anything from the `how to girl' in this film except that love ferns die just like relationships if they are not properly nurtured. Diamond companies do not pay advertising companies great sums of money to come up with a slogan like `Frost Yourself'; one can only hope this was a failed parody attempt. Men do not come back carrying flowers and missing the smell of perfume on pillows to women who are prone to dating faux pas. No man should tolerate ten days of Andie's erratic behavior, and no woman should want a sports-fanatic boyfriend who skips game seven of his team's playoff series to go to a Celine Dion concert. Andie is annoying but occasionally endearing and the gestures by Barry are valiant, but none if it is real. Comedy doesn't need to be steeped in reality, but How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days suggests that something needs to resonate with the audience or all is truly lost.