At the Movies - 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'

The Associated Press

For a romantic comedy, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" is surprisingly tolerable -- and that's a ringing endorsement from a chick who loathes chick flicks.

The witty banter is witty much of the time, not just syrupy and forced. And the movie takes place in a New York City that's been waxed and buffed to such a high sheen, you can practically see yourself in its reflection.

(You know you're in Fantasyland because the lowly Knicks are playing the Sacramento Kings in the NBA finals.)

But the key is that the stars, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, have such an easy, undeniable chemistry.

They're great-looking and they look great together. They're perfectly coifed and stylishly dressed at all times. (Hudson's hair is so flawlessly, blindingly blond, it's practically a character itself.) Even when a truck rumbles by and splashes them with mud, they still manage to look cute. And that's pretty much all you need for a mindless, eye-candy date movie.

Hudson plays Andie Anderson, a columnist for a Cosmopolitan-style women's magazine that takes on the tough issues, like "Sizzling sex in 10 days!" and "Do blondes have more fun?" But she's clearly in the wrong place, because she wants to write about politics and the environment, which fails to impress her hard-driving editor (Bebe Neuwirth, channeling Vogue's Anna Wintour).

In a cutesy alliterative touch, Andie hooks up with Ben Barry (McConaughey), a hotshot advertising exec who changes his shirt in the middle of the office so all the women can stare at his six-pack abs.

The premise is strictly old-school screwball comedy: After a female co-worker has driven yet another guy away by being too clingy, Andie gets an idea for her latest column: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." She'll pick someone out and make all the mistakes women make in relationships, hoping that he'll dump her.

Meanwhile, Ben's colleagues bet him that he can't make a woman fall in love with him in -- you guessed it -- 10 days. He'll pick someone out and stick with her no matter how hideously she behaves. The payoff has something to do with an ad campaign for diamonds, for which he's competing with two co-workers (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow).

Andie and Ben just happen to be in the same yuppie watering hole at the same time, and after a couple of martinis, voila.

The subtext is amusing at first, as Andie throws herself at Ben, and Ben, trying to be a gentleman, tells her he wants to take it slow.

But Andie quickly turns needy to the point of being psychotic, immediately moving into his apartment, cramming it with teddy bears and tampons, and throwing a tantrum in front of his buddies during poker night.

Even though it's a romantic comedy, director Donald Petrie needed to keep one foot in reality; he makes the mistake of letting Andie's behavior spiral too violently out of control to be believable.

But Petrie previously directed a then-unknown Julia Roberts in 1988's "Mystic Pizza" and Sandra Bullock in 2000's "Miss Congeniality," and he allows Hudson's innate charm to shine through. Although she's established herself as an actress in movies like "Almost Famous" and "Dr. T and the Woman"-- and is no longer just Goldie Hawn's daughter -- glimmers of her mother's charm are evident when Hudson is at her most zany and goofy.

As for McConaughey, that good-ol'-boy, twangy Texas thing he does ordinarily gets annoying, but it suits him perfectly in this role. And did we mention that he takes off his shirt?

"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" falls into the usual romantic comedy traps toward the end -- the unraveling of motivations and thawing of hearts. And we didn't need to hear the Gin Blossoms' "Follow You Down" ever again, much less as loudly as it plays during the movie's climax on the Manhattan Bridge.

But hey, Valentine's Day is coming, and this can answer the question of "How to Choose A Date Movie in 10 Seconds."

"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some sex-related material. Running time: 115 minutes.

Two and a half stars out of four.