How to Deal

Plot synopsis:
Halley Marie Martin (Mandy Moore) is a 17-year-old high school student who is disillusioned with love after seeing many dysfunctional relationships around her. Her parents are now divorced and her father, Len Martin (Peter Gallagher), a radio talk show host, has a new young girlfriend that the entire family despises. Her mother, Lydia (Allison Janney), is now always alone while her sister, Ashley, is so overwhelmed by her upcoming wedding with Lewis Warsher that she barely exists in the house. The shallowness of all the teens at her school convinces Halley that finding true love is impossible.
When Halley walks in on her best friend Scarlett having sex with her boyfriend, the high school soccer champ, Michael Sherwood, Halley tries to warn her of the complications that lie ahead. Ignoring her advice, Scarlett embarks on a summer fling with Michael. In the meantime, Halley must deal with Ashley and the rest of the Martins must deal with her soon-to-be in-laws, Lewis' overbearing Southern parents, who have an African American maid. In the meantime, Halley runs into classmate Macon Forrester, a slacker who never shows up for biology and is more interested in having fun than school work. He is Michael Sherwood's best friend.
Then a few weeks later, Michael dies of a heart defect on the soccer field while Halley, Scarlett and other classmates watch helplessly. This event changes the lives of Halley and Scarlett forever. While Scarlett does her best to look beautiful for Michael at his funeral, Macon gives a moving speech about his friend. Struggling with Michael's death, Scarlett, at age sixteen, soon learns that she is pregnant with his child. With Halley at her side, Scarlett reveals the pregnancy to her mother.
Halley's father, Len Martin, marries his mistress, Lorna, in a beach-side ceremony, with guests from all over the world, or "within his radio frequency", as Halley puts it.
Halley and Macon eventually start a relationship. He takes her to his and Michael's favorite hangout and once come close to having sex. Halley and her mother get into an argument and on New Year's Eve, Halley sneaks out with Macon to a party. Again, they come very close to having sex but this time Halley stops it and Macon is upset. On their way home, they are both upset and distracted and hit a tree. Halley gets a broken arm, but otherwise they both walk away from it unharmed, but Halley breaks up with Macon saying that she can't wait around for him to grow up. Later things go awry when Halley finds Ashley drunk on the family's front porch. Finding a male stripper's thong around her neck, Halley witnesses the break-up of her sister's engagement. She also learns that her mother sneaks out once a week to have sex with a man she met a couple of weeks previously, Steve. After another make-up, Lewis proposes to Ashley again, this time at a crowded airport: she says yes.
On the day of Ashley and Lewis' wedding, Macon bursts into Len's radio studio, professing his apologies and love to Halley. He then heads to the wedding. On the way, he finds Scarlett, who insisted on walking to the wedding, going into labor on the side of the road. He puts her in the car and walks into the wedding, getting Halley's attention. The three rush to the hospital, leaving Scarlett's mother behind in the rush.
While Scarlett is having her baby, Halley makes a list of all the little things she hates about Macon, the way his hair falls over his face, the way his voice gets low when he's serious, the way he bites his lip when he's nervous and the way his eyebrow twitches. Halley playfully uses Macon's 'Jedi Mind Trick' and they kiss and dance briefly in the hallway. The movie ends as Halley and Macon embrace and viewers see that Scarlett gave birth to a baby boy.

Tags: flashback

Review:
It covered just about most of the problems teenagers face these days.It was essentially a good movie and dealt with these issues quite well - not too heavy, not too light.Mandy Moore was pretty darned good too - she has a nice little career ahead of her me thinks!
Though it's all rather light, How to Deal does have some seriousness and important parts.Mandy Moore (marry me?) is Halley Martin, a teenage girl who refuses to believe that true love exists (like me).
It seems like the best way to deal with love is to avoid it.All that changes when Halley meets Macon (stupid name) a geeky Star Wars nerd.
He's played by Trent Ford and on the cover he's wearing a white vest and is marketed as a sexually neutral, non-threatening pretty boy (Orlando Bloom, Justin Timberlake etc) but that ain't him or his character at all and he never appears in a vest at any point in the movie.
Real kids, not the kids that make love to pastries or live in mansions, which are the only 2 types of kids Hollywood thinks exist.Taken from 2 separate novels by Sarah Dessen called 'Someone Like You' and 'That Summer' it's possible that How to Deal might have a sequel.
The real problem is that for the movie's target audience of middle-class suburban white teenagers it's positively overflowing with groaners -- embarrassing "banter" between the kids, cartoonish characters (idiotic philandering husbands, evil boy-stealing girlfriends), and a preposterous storyline.
My own teenage daughter and her friends thought How to Deal was, and I quote, "stupid."  But for us middle-aged parents nostalgic for a time in their lives they've almost completely forgotten, it really isn't that bad.
With a well-selected and not over-done cast and a promising trailer, I looked forward to seeing Mandy Moore's second leading role in a film.
Allison Janney is another actress I respect, ever since her small role as the grouchy secretary in 10 Things I Hate About You. Her role did not require as much "involvement" as Mandy's and Trent's, but she did well and contributed to this movie's good quality.
Yes, it was tacky, pervasive and thematic at many times with it's dismissed and glorified themes of teen sex, teen pregnancy and teen drug use but it conveyed itself in a way that has not been used as often lately and in a way that i truly enjoyed.I don't know if it was the tone, cinematography, costumes, art direction, or a little bit of each which made How to Deal a pleasantly enjoyable movie.
This is what made it seem like a less of a thin movie than some may argue it was.The plot was interesting and almost kept you on the edge of your seat as you watched Hally struggle and hoped things would work out for her.
How to Deal (2003) Cynical seventeen-year-old Mandy Moore has seen love gone wrong too many times in her own family that she refuses to believe it exists in her when a boy (Trent Ford) takes interest.
Unlike a high-school-movie-of-the-week, this is a surprisingly thoughtful, sometimes contrived film that takes concern to serious teen issues, but it tries to deal with too much at once.
It boils down to this, Mandy's character has to deal with her parents divorce, her sister's wedding, her father's remarrying, her best friend getting pregnant with her deceased boyfriend's baby (it's not what it sounds like), and the fact that despite her misgivings about love, falling in love with the high school clown named Macon.
At one point Haley (Mandy Moore's character) blows up over her Mom not believing that she could remember the last time Haley's comet passed by.
Allison Janney as Mandy Moore's mother is quirky but not funny although she has the only laughs in the movie.
Unlike most sleazy teen movies, this one is realistic and the audience will most likely connect and understand what the characters are going through.
How to Deal would work so much better as a teen film refusing to conform to cookie-cutter ideology if it didn't always seem like it was contradicting what it originally set out to do.
Whether this issue was brought on by Sarah Dessen, the author of That Summer and Someone Like You, which the film is based off of or screenwriter Neena Beber is up to debate, but for whatever reason, How to Deal feels like a rebel being proved wrong, foolish, and worthless and I doubt that's how it was originally conceived.The story revolves around seventeen year old Halley Martin (Mandy Moore), who becomes disillusioned with the concept of love because of how it appears in her own life.
So, because of these two things, Halley simply doesn't believe in love anymore and goes on with her life with that mindset.This, right here, should be the plot of How to Deal, but strangely, Beber (or Dessen, perhaps) decides to throw the film for a loop and have Halley be the subject of a love story with the geeky hunk Macon (Trent Ford).
The film should be revolving around Halley's life rejecting love, perhaps embracing hobbies, becoming more artistic and sociable in her life and at school, or even just being more comfortable around guys with the conflict potentially being rejecting her family and mistaking her family's love for ingenuous behavior if something were to go wrong in her life.Instead, the film brings up a romance, which feels offputting because it gives the message to young teens who maybe have questions about love the impression that if they think real love doesn't exist they are wrong and foolish because it does.
How to Deal plays like "love propaganda," in the sense that its goal appears to be convincing a segment of the population who have rejected romantic notions and the idea that love makes people blind to reality (usually hard-hearted realists or mature pessimists) see the stupidity of their ways and rethink their initial thoughts.Early on, when the film is still trying to show us that Halley may be on to something with her ideology before pulling a complete three-sixty with the story, we get a glimpse at Halley with her close friend watching Halley's sister argue with her ex.
Right there, the film has just proved Halley's point by saying that love makes people ignore or lessen the bad in life because they are so in awe with the person they are with.
However, just a few scenes later, Halley is seen falling for Macon in a way just as contrived as the events we just saw unfold.Because of this, little additional features about How to Deal can be admired, with the exception of the cast's uniformly solid performances in making their characters at least somewhat believable in their personalities.
This is an entry in the new genre I'll call "love propaganda" and I'm hoping another film won't fall into that category.Starring: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, and Trent Ford.
But Moore is lovely, and has such an honest screen presence, that transfers to film amazingly --- Now, as she leaves those teen roles behind, she's bound to be an Oscar Winning actress --- she's gonna go all the way, you can see it in her eyes.
Again, we understand the point, and we trust in the final 45 minutesof the movie it resolved itself and some moral came across, but getting there was all wrong.Mandy Moore, we were huge fans and big believers in you, and even liked your attitude on your DVD commentary on "A Walk to Remember" -- but this ruined you for us.
It centers around Halley (Mandy Moore), who has a weird dad that announces his upcoming marriage on his radio show before telling her, her best friend who finds out she's pregnant after her summer boyfriend dies from a heart defect, her sister who is planning a wedding, and her mom who starts a new romance.
(A show of hands if anyone believes that --  besides teen girls.)And just when you think the film will deliver a laugh or an insight, all it can manage is one of those cheap, spur-of-the moment comments that kids make up in the hallway between classes when there really isn't any time to think things through.Bad. Bad.
In `How To Deal,' we see the story of a teen girl who's dealing not only with her parents divorce, but also her sister's wedding, her best friend's pregnancy and falling in love in a world where love doesn't seem like it can last.
It sounds like this film has the ingredients for something more truthful than most movies geared towards a teen audience.
Although I'm actually thankful the relationship with Halley (Mandy Moore) and Macon (Trent Ford) didn't have more time, because it was a joke and the whole time I kept rolling my eyes and screaming inside "NO!
When a romance movie ends and you are left thinking that it's very likely the two could break-up the next day and don't have a chance in hell at staying together, it's not exactly a good thing.
Combining Sarah Dessen's two brilliant novels, (Someone Like You and That Summer) Mandy Moore and Trent Ford as Haley Martin and Macon Forrester deliver a wonderful, creative, and believable story.
The acting in this movie was decent at the very least, Nina Foch provides comic humor as the grandmother and Mandy Moore plays a perfect Haley.
I really like Mandy Moore, I think she's a good actress and under-rated, maybe cause she's a pop singer too, I guess...
Though it could have been edited better and could have been a bit different, the movie doesn't suck.Mandy Moore does a great job showing a different character than that of Jamie Sullivan from A Walk to Remember.
Ford also does a great job as her soon-to-be lover and as a friend.My advice: Read the books and watch the movie with an open mind.
If you liked the movie, read the book and you will definately fall in love with it..
This movie is a typical teen flick, which focuses on a teenage girl reluctant to believe in love.
I saw Crossroads and Glitter and let me tell you it was not pretty.Mandy Moore comes off as a likeable and genuine girl.Not once did I roll my eyes at her or stiffle a laugh at poorly delivered line (I wish I could say the same for her co-star Trent Ford he was terrible).
How to deal was a good low budget movie with the major strengths being Mandy Moore, Allison Janney and the beautiful photography set over 9 months.
:) Trent Ford was really good, too.This movie also gives off a flirty, romantic, exciting, and anticipating feeling because every new thing that happens isn't usually what you'd expect.I recommend this movie to teenagers or even just people who like romance with a tad of comedy.
The movie features great perfomances from Allison Janney, Alexandra Holden and Mandy Moore, and actually had the balls to tactfully tackle issues that most teen flicks shy away from.The sub-plots, yet unoriginal, are thoughtful.
We begin to think the movie has a brain when the characters who aren't the centre of the film have to deal with their situations.
We are distracted by what is supposed to be the centre of the film, but in actuality is a gag-inducing, terribly clichéd romance between Mandy Moore and Trent Ford.
The movie's producers knew what demographic they wanted to reach, and as such, rolled out a cookie-cutter romance story to appease the teenage girl audience - girl disillusioned with love meets nice boy, initially resists his insatiable charm, but ends up falling for him because that's how it always goes.
and mandy moore was very good .it's not the better movie that a saw but it was very great !
Based on two popular novels by my favorite author, Sarah Dessen, this movie deals with the life of cynical Halley (Moore), who doesn't believe in true love.
The movie is based after 2 young adult novels which deal with a young woman's relationships with friends and family, but more importantly, it deals (no pun expected) with getting used to different things in life: love, death, and many normal life changes.
It is the start of many new teenage understandings, and this movie is good at seeing how universal and "common-day" some of these "problems" are for this girl.Mandy Moore (this is the first film I've seen of hers) plays a cutie-pie role (like I've heard is every character she's ever played) so there wasn't much of a stretch.
The rest of the actors/actresses did a fairly standard job at acting interested in being in a film with Mandy Moore...that's all, though.So the movie is very average, touching on too many other films based on young adult novels without any kind of artistic license used.
I love Mandy Moore, and felt let down by the film.
I am still a Mandy Moore fan, but I think she made a mistake by making the film...but hey you live and learn.
Mandy Moore is a great actress and Trent Ford is pretty damn cute but I was disappointed.
A Walk To Remember was the best movie I saw which is played by Mandy Moore.
The basic plot behind this movie is that Mandy's character Halley Martin sees many flaws in the love in the relationships of the people she knows that she fails to see that true love exists.
well maybe if you didn't focus so much on the image of mandy moore and judge her personal life which has absolutely nothing to do with her films you might see this movie for what it really is.
I enjoyed the chemistry between Mandy Moore (Halley) and Trent Ford (Macon); their love scenes and adequate acting.
"Walk to Remember" is one of my favorite movies, so I was really looking forward to seeing Mandy Moore's latest.
Early in the movie Halley, the Mandy Moore character, walks in on her best friend, Scarlett, having sex.
But then, instead of setting a good example, the mother sneaks off to have sex with her own boyfriend.Finally, at the end of the movie, Scarlett, still unwed, gives birth and everyone is standing outside the maternity ward acting like it's so wonderful that she has this adorable little baby.
The whole point of the plot seems to be that (news flash!) puppy love is still possible even though you are disillusioned by your parents' divorce.I read that Mandy Moore is trying to shed her squeaky-clean image, like Jennifer Lopez did after Selena, I guess.
Let's not forget the bad boy who has a sensitive spot when it comes to the right girl, and the idealistic best friend who tries to 'deal' with everything life throws at her with cheerful resolve but only manages to do so because of her best friend, Halley--which brings us to the lead.Mandy Moore's natural acting talent shines through in this character.
How To Deal looks like a really good movie.
Mandy Moore's movies are always good though.
I thought that the mom (Allison Janney, now the star of a show called "Mom") was the most interesting character, but she didn't get enough screen time.Basically, I prefer to think of the causes for which Mandy Moore stands (I haven't seen "This Is Us").
Mandy Moore is a good actress, even though she seems tied to movies made from books (A Walk to Remember).
How to Deal is the tale of a girl, played by Mandy Moore, who doesn't believe that falling in love is a good idea because her parents are divorced, her friend is knocked up by a dead guy, her sister fights with her fiancée and her father is marrying a woman half his age.
It was the story that got to me,and when I finally saw it,it didn't disappoint.The main character has to deal with a lot of different situations during the course of the film which is like compressing all the good parts from an entire season of one's teen soap.
It was the story that got to me,and when I finally dsaw it,it didn't disappoint.The main character has to deal with a lot of different situations during the course of the film which is like compressing all the good parts from an entire season of one's teen soap.
Having seen "A Walk to Remember," I figured it'd be another Mandy Moore chick flick - not bad, but nothing special.This movie just *didn't work.* Using two different teen novels as a basis for a "plot" didn't work.
A couple of the supporting characters (played by Allison Janney and Alexandra Holden) were ok; others (Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison) were as terrible as Trent Ford.One can only hope that if Mandy Moore wishes to be taken seriously as an actress, she'll accept a better script next time, because she's not a terrible actress.I gave it 3/10, and that's only for the non-comedy induced laughs my friend and I, as well as several other members of the very small audience, had..
Mandy Moore's performance in this movie is so bad - that a person watching Mandy for the first time may never want to watch her act again.
A cute Mandy Moore film, not as bad as some say it is..
How to Deal (2003): Dir: Clare Kilner / Cast: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Trent Ford, Peter Gallagher, Dylan Baker: Regards relationships but it gets pulled in too many directions.
Oh well...Mandy Moore, as Halley, is about the only reason for watching the movie.
Now I like Mandy Moore and thought she was good in A Walk to Remember so I wasn't too upset.
Mandy Moore stars in How To Deal based on teen girl author Sarah Dessen's books about growing up as a young lady in today's world.
Moore is an interesting lead for the film, but her character has enough material thrown at her to deal with in three different movies, much less one.