How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, the best rom-com ever made?
How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, released in 2003, is a twist on the classic battle of the sexes film. Kate Hudson plays Andie Anderson, an up and coming writer who is working for the women’s magazine Composure, writing the How to… section. Matthew McConaughey plays Benjamin Barry, the head of advertising and a womanizer. These two both end up playing the other to try to get ahead in their jobs, Andie’s goal is to lose Ben, but Ben is trying to keep Andie, (spoiler alert) in the end, they discover that they really do love each other in spite of all the awful, but funny things they put each other through.
Matthew McConaughey, once again proves that he can really do it all in this film. Known for his roles in other films such as The Dallas Buyers Club, Magic Mike, and The Wolf of Wall Street. His versatile acting skills make him perhaps one of the best actors in the business. In How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, McConaughey plays the guy that doesn’t necessarily want to fall in love. He comes off as a lady’s man and a womanizer, a guy who is more interested in a one-night stand than a real relationship. Kate Hudson’s character, Andie has the same sort of deal going on, but from a woman’s perspective, while she may not be out rightly against a relationship, she definitely is not looking for one. The combination of their goals and their backgrounds makes for a pretty good comedy.
How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, was directed by Donald Petrie. Petrie is known for directing Miss Congeniality, Grumpy Old Men, and Mystic Pizza. Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long wrote the book “How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days”, which as you may have guessed was the book the film How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days is based off of. The film was also scored by David Newman, who won the BMI Film Music Award for his work in this film. He is also known for his work, composing Scooby-Doo, The Nutty Professor, Tarzan, and Some Kind of Beautiful. With people like this working in the background and stars like Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, it is no wonder that the film turned out better than most of us would have expected.
The film addresses the topic of the battle of the sexes. Andie and Ben are both in the business of magazines, but this is not where the competition ends. The battle begins when Andie and Ben decide to go out. Ben is trying to get Andie to love him, but Andie is trying to get Ben to break up with her. They both come up with some pretty funny ideas to try to get their way. In the end, as you may have guessed, they realize they are actually in love with each other, but before they can come to this realization they experience many things, things that should have drove them apart and things that brought them together. While in real life, the battle of the sexes is a much more serious topic that generally involves things like the pay gap and what opportunities are presented to what gender, I still think there is something to take away from this film. What that is might be different for other people, but I think you can learn to not use other people to get ahead in your career because that will most likely only end badly. Or perhaps there is something else to be learned or nothing at all(but I find that hard to believe).
To answer my question, this film has got to be one of the best in the romantic comedy genre. I might even venture to say that it is the best romantic- comedy every made, or at least out of the ones I have watched. What I do know for sure is, it is definitely one of my favorites. It has a little something for almost everybody, from its funny scenes, to the sports scenes, to the tricks Andie and Ben play on each other, this film has the potential to serve as some great entertainment. This film definitely doesn’t dive deep into the human experience, but that’s ok. It is a great bit of humor that can lighten up your day. If you are looking for a film to make you laugh and enjoy the romantic comedy genre, then I would definitely recommend that you see this film.
