Film Reviews

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Adam Goldberg
• Details: US / 112 mins / (12PG).

Perfunctory and predictable romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey as Ben Barry, a hotshot advertising executive who bets conniving co-workers that he can make any single, young woman fall in love with him in 10 days. His designated target is Andie Anderson (Hudson), a pretty young journalist for a glossy women's magazine. Unbeknownst to Ben, Andie has to write an article on how to make a chap fall in and out of love with her in a mere - you've guessed it! - 10 days and is currently on the lookout for a victim. Cue lots of romantic mayhem as Andie does her damndest to play the psycho girlfriend, while Ben has to accept all of her nonsense if he is to win his own bet.
One of those films which is barely on speaking terms with reality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starts briskly but quickly becomes mired in a series of atypical rom com conundrums. Rigidly adhering to the blueprint and convention established by countless other likeminded genre pictures, the only thing saving the movie from ultimate damnation is the genuine likeability of its two leads. But there's too little here that you haven't seen before.

Review by Garreth Murphy