I laughed a very few times in spite of myself

Rating: 5/10 (5 July 2003)

Having seen the previews, I thought this movie would pretty much be How to Lose a Guy Viewer in 10 Minutes. To my credit, I saw it on an airplane to Hawaii and paid nothing extra to see it. To the film's credit, it managed to keep me staring at it for its duration. Plot-wise, there is nothing to say. Everything you need to know is explained in the previews. There is not a split second of suspense throughout the entire film. Yet this is entirely expected and to hope for a complex storyline is to be sitting through the wrong film. The acting was exactly what was expected, the cinematography wholly unremarkable, the realism unsurprisingly lacking, and the score unmemorable. Realistically, the only elements that have a chance of redeeming the film are the romance and the comedy. Considering the nature of the film, the romance is, like all else, as predictable and superficial as the rest of the film, although not as annoying as it might have been. So we come to the aspect of humor. I must say, that despite all of these markedly low expectations and the desire not to laugh at such a tragic example of the flaws of American culture, the film was overall fairly amusing. I found myself smiling or laughing enough to keep me from unplugging the headphones from the armrest and unplugging my mind from its consciousness. Kate Hudson, whose acting in Almost Famous was good if memory serves, pulled off the role as reasonably as can be expected for a film with such low potential. McConaughey was also occasionally funny, although perhaps his friends were the most humorous. Overall, while I couldn't recommend it to anyone, I know those who like this sort of drivel will see it anyway, and for its genre it's slightly more bearable than similar films. See it if you have little dignity, little choice, and little expectation, and you may laugh a little. [5/10]