DONALD PETRIE

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB.5. 

USA/Germany, 2003.  Lynda Obst Productions, MMP Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Moviemakers Productions, Paramount Pictures, Robert Evans Company, W2 Film Production GmbH.  Screenplay by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, Burr Steers, based on the book by Michele Alexander, Jeannie Long.  Cinematography by John Bailey.  Produced by Robert Evans, Lynda Obst, Christine Peters.  Music by David Newman.  Production Design by Therese DePrez.  Costume Design by Karen Patch.  Film Editing by Debra Neil-Fisher.  

Kate Hudson plays a journalist whose Cosmopolitan-esque magazine constantly has her finding new ways to tell the same stories about romance and personal grooming in the Big Apple. When her editor (Bebe Neuwirth) assigns her a story on how to lose a guy in ten days, she picks an unwitting advertising executive (Matthew McConaughey) as her prey upon whom she will heap the worst behaviour in order to get her story. Little does she know, however, that McConaughey is himself assigned by his boss to prove that he can make any woman fall in love with him in order to get himself a huge diamond company’s advertising account, and has chosen Hudson for the task. The setup is charming, and the execution of it is delightful thanks to the performances, but do you really think anything else is going to happen in the last reel besides them living happily ever after? It’s not cynicism that prompts me to question such a thing, it’s more that this movie rides on such safe assumptions and rarely finds any fresh humour in the premise. On the other hand, its trailer and promotional materials provide you with exactly what you need to know about what you’re getting into, so if you watch it you get exactly what you deserve.