By Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter
Andie (Kate Hudson) and Ben (Matthew McConaughey) in a scene from the movie 'How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days'. - Contributed
HOW TO Lose A Guy In Ten Days is a great way to spend your time. The romantic comedy is a funny flick which pokes fun at those 'girly-girl' things that often have men running in the opposite direction, while the woman sits at home knee-deep in ice cream wondering why he did not return her 50 phone calls.
To be honest, How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days does not derive its greatest charm from the romance issue. In fact, one should probably dismiss that part of the movie, except that it ties up the story with a nice ribbon. The romance is only sketched in and so it is hard to understand why the main characters fall in love. In this case, How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days is really just a regular comedy which happens to be built on the romantic formula.
The first thing that has to be forgiven of this movie, however, is the names of the main characters, a nasty double whammy of Ben Barry and Andie Anderson. Another thing that may be used against it is that the movie brings nothing new to the table, but it handles itself well and so fans of romantic comedies will not complain. Why? Well it is based on the theory that a chocolate cake is still a chocolate cake, even if you would have really enjoyed a strawberry topping. The cake is still good. That is what How to Lose A Guy In Ten Days is: a good chocolate cake with just an ordinary frosting.
Andie (Kate Hudson) and Ben (Matthew McConaughey) get involved for very selfish (and as the formula demands) unusual reasons. Both are using their relationship as a tool to help their jobs.
Andie works for one of those women's magazines which come up with silly articles about how to do this, that and 'tarra'. These articles usually have titles such as 'How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed', 'Ten Ways to Make Your Wardrobe Fabulous' and other such claptrap aimed at women's insecurities to get them addicted to being a constant make-over project.
The movie gets its title from Andie's latest article, where she will investigate all the things that women do wrong in a relationship. This test will prove that they are the things that drive men away, not simply that men are horrible cretins from another planet (not that it denies that they are such).
VICTIM
Ben is the victim for this new story. However, he walks into what will soon become his nightmare. While Andie's aim is to have him fall out of love with her, Ben's mission is to prove that he can make any woman fall in love with him. As such, despite her moving in stuffed toys into his bedroom and living room; making him miss the climax of basketball games and packing his medicine cabinet with the likes of Vagisil and Tampax, Ben sticks around. He continues to stick around even though she has a tendency to cry for the strangest (and often illogical) things, changing from a rational human being to a ball of quivering, dripping mush.
Despite all the laughter that her craziness brings, there is an important moral to this tale. If a man sticks around even if you are an emotional rollercoaster who has no respect for his need of personal space, it probably isn't simply love.
Men who have girlfriends who behave like this may want to take them to this movie, so they will see just how crazy they are. Of course, women will also enjoy this movie, because it is simply funny. The fact that it uses a made-up stereotype who is the very opposite of Andie allows it not to be demeaning to women, since it does not suggest that all women are like this.
Another slight plus to this movie is that it features Bebe Neuwirth, who played 'Lilith' on the NBC tv-series Frasier. She still has no colour, but she is more animated and no less cruel.
If one is looking for depth of feeling and wonderfully drawn characters, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days is not the movie for you. However, if you want to look at pretty people and get a great laugh, it is just the ticket. It might not score very high on the romance chart, but it gets a good seven (at least) on the funny chart.
