How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Directed by Donald Petrie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days follows Kate Hudson’s Andie Anderson as she accepts a challenge to drive away a new romantic partner in just over a week – with Andie little realizing that her target, Matthew McConaughey’s Benjamin Barry, is participating in a bet of his own to see if he can make her fall in love with him. It’s a palpably absurd setup that’s employed to erratic yet sporadically amusing effect by Petrie, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, and Burr Steers, delivers a hit-and-miss romcom that is, particularly at the outset, stymied by a palpably overlong running time (116 minutes!) – with the padded-out atmosphere paving the way for opening and closing stretches that could (and should) have been considerably condensed. (This is, of course, especially true of the needlessly prolonged fake break-up portion of the proceedings.) The charisma of the two stars, coupled with the bountiful chemistry between McConaughey and Hudson’s respective protagonists, goes a long way towards enhancing the picture’s passable atmosphere, and it’s difficult, as well, not to get a kick out of the larger-than-life scenarios and situations, stemming from Andie and Benjamin’s individual wagers, in which the heroes find themselves throughout – with the end result is a decent-enough romantic comedy that should certainly have topped out at about an hour and a half.

**1/2 out of ****