Running time: 116 minutes
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Goldberg, Bebe Neuwirth
Rating 2 out of 10
Listed at running a little under two hours, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days felt more like it was shot in real time. This interminable and painfully contrived "romantic comedy" offers little in the way of light relief. Instead, like a horror film, you find yourself clutching your hands to your face and viewing it through the shielding protection of your fingers. The film's distinct lack of charm coupled with its cynical premise make it one of Hollywood's most loathsome romantic comedies in quite a while, which, given the wealth of recent competition is about the only impressive claim it can make. We've all too often seen the 'bet' plot: the familiar story centering on someone becoming romantically entangled with a hapless innocent on the strength of a bet, only to find themselves genuinely falling in love. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days goes one step further by having both partners operating with ulterior motives. This jaundiced outline may have worked had either one of its protagonists possessed any traceable smidgeon of decency and integrity, but as both are equally self-serving and shallow, it provides nothing and no-one to care about.
Kate Hudson plays Annie Anderson, a journalist on the women's magazine 'Composure', who longs to do more biting pieces than the 'How To Make Your Man Happy' fluff she's become synonymous with. When her colleague Michelle (Kathryn Hahn) regales her woes of yet another shortlived romance, their opportunist boss (Bebe Neuwirth) comes up with the title for Anderson's next column, and the one adopted by the movie. Setting out to look for a suitable candidate she meets up with the impossibly conceited advertising executive Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey). In a desperate effort to win a much coveted diamond account away from two female colleagues, he has made a bet with them that he can make any girl fall in love with him in 10 days and attend an important company function. So, with conflicting agendas, Annie and Ben embark on their artificial relationship.
The ensuing saga involves Annie trying to sabotage things using an impressive arsenal of weapons ranging from the obligatory squeaky voice, pet names, pestering phone calls and an unhealthy obsession with stuffed animals. Her annoying tactics certainly have the desired effect of testing Ben's resolve (and the audience's stomach). But while most rational men would flee in the face of such behaviour, Ben is forced to endure it for 10 days in order to win his bet. Regardless of the outcome of the wager, by the end there is certainly no question about who the losers are.
