'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' is modest romantic comedy

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (PG-13) Stars: A modest but polished romantic comedy, starring Kate Hudson — much in the mold of her famous mom (Goldie Hawn) — and Matthew McConaughey. Though cluttered with too many supporting characters and subplot, the central couple is funny and appealing. Donald Petrie directs. Paramount, 118 minutes.

Either way, she charms. "How to Lose a Guy," though, is significantly slighter fare.

Mom, of course, is Goldie Hawn — and "How to Lose a Guy" is very much a modest Hawn-like romantic comedy for a new generation.

Hudson co-stars with Matthew McConaughey in Donald Petrie's formulaic comedy about two handsome Manhattanites who come together under false pretenses.

Hudson is Andie, a columnist for a woman's magazine who is assigned to write a first-person account of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." She's to pick a guy and then do all the things women do that supposedly turn guys off — call him repeatedly, smother him, re-do his apartment, crash his poker games, make him leave a Knicks' game with only a minute to go to buy her a soft drink, etc.

McConaughey is a fast-rising advertising agent who wants to get away from pitching beer and sports equipment — and land a lucrative jewelry account. To prove he knows what women want, he bets his boss (Robert Klein) that he can meet and woo a woman so she'll profess her love for him within 10 days.

In one of those coincidences you only find in the movies, the two come together: the Irresistible Force and the Immovable Object.

Of course, before Andie and Ben finish hoodwinking each other, they really fall in love. But will all that deceit doom the romance? What, are you kidding?

The film's look is as glossy as the concept — from Therese DePrez's posh production design to cinematographer John Bailey's emphasis on lemon-yellow and other brightly lit pastels.

Hudson and McConaughey are fine as the central couple — and generate appealing chemistry, thanks mostly to amusing dialogue.

Hudson, in particular, has her mother's flair for flighty behavior and offbeat sex appeal. McConaughey is required to be a bit more obvious. (He's scripted to change his shirt twice in the office — in full view of his co-workers.)

The screenplay is by committee, and the supporting players sometimes seem like committees as well.

Where one character would be plenty, the cluttered scenario gives us two.

Andie and Ben each have two buddies to advise them when one would do — and Ben's opposition for the account at the ad agency is also a pair of young women.

Maybe the Screen Actors Guild was offering a two-for-one special when this picture was cast.

Rated PG-13, with sexual innuendo, profanity.