Silly fluff but not without some entertainment value

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2006)

Andie Anderson is a writer for women's magazine Composure. For her next "how to" article she decides to write about how to lose a man in 10 days, by picking up a guy and then doing all the bad stuff women usually do (calling loads, being clingy) to drive him away in less than a week and a half. Meanwhile Ben Barry is a slick advertising exec who has just been beaten to a big diamond contract by two female colleagues. He challenges them in front of the client by saying that selling diamonds to women is just like selling love to women and proposes that he make a girl fall in love with him before the sales pitch in 10 days  if he succeeds then he wins the contact. However his colleague Spears spots Anderson and, knowing about her proposed story, points Ben in her direction. So begins a short relationship where Ben tries to win over a woman who is actively trying to push him away.
Early on this film is very forced in how it sets up the actual plot, which is perhaps understandable when you think about how very unlikely the whole thing is. However once it manages to swallow this very big pill, it moves forward with good humour by only focusing on the moment and trading on the charisma of the stars. Of course by doing this it means it never gets beyond the superficial and silly, not a major problem since it is quite fun at times. Of course it is very predictable and anyone who doesn't know where it is going probably hasn't long come out the womb! The predictability of the story does mean that, when it does have to bring the film to a close, it isn't that great and losses the fun of the main body. Fans of clichéd rom-coms will love it because it serves up just what you expect and does it with solid laughs.
The cast are a big plus because the lead two work well together and almost (almost) carry off the near-impossible task of selling their weird character dynamics between them. Neither McConaughey or Hudson are people that I would make much effort to seek out (although the former is OK) but here they work well together and have a nice chemistry and delivery that is funny and convinced me that maybe they did have a spark below all the betting and game playing. Support from Goldberg and Lennon was amusing but underused, while Michele and Harlow make for good turns and eye candy.
Overall this is a predictable and obvious stuff that romcom fans will probably eat up. For the rest of us, it is probably too simplistic and forced but the middle section is fun and maybe even fun enough to get you into in and past the clunky ending that we all knew was coming. Silly fluff but not without some entertainment value.