Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey star in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on February 7, 2003. Donald Petrie directed. Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan and Burr Steers wrote the script. The tagline is blunt about the setup: “One of them is lying. So is the other.”
The film runs 116 minutes. It grossed $177.5 million against a $50 million production budget and was a box office success. Reviews were mixed. Critics praised the acting and the chemistry between the two leads and criticized the script and the predictable plot.
That split is the whole story of this movie. It is a hit with a hole in the middle of it.
Trailer, via Paramount Movies.
A Magazine Writer and an Ad Executive Walk Into a Bar
Andie Anderson writes “How to” columns for Composure, a New York women’s magazine. She is dissatisfied with the work and wants to write about serious issues. When her friend Michelle goes through another breakup, Andie pitches an article called “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” The method: date a man and drive him away using the classic mistakes women make.
Ben Barry works in advertising. His usual remit is beer and sports campaigns, and he wants to branch out by leading a campaign for a diamond company. He meets his boss Phillip Warren and rival coworkers Judy Spears and Judy Green at a bar. Ben wagers that he can make any woman fall in love with him. Phillip agrees that if Ben pulls it off by the company ball in 10 days, he leads the diamond campaign.
Spears and Green were at the Composure offices earlier that day. They know about Andie’s planned article. They pick her as the woman for the bet.
So the two begin dating, neither revealing the real reason. The tagline says it plainly: “One of them is lying. So is the other.”
Princess Sophia, the Love Fern, and Other Weapons
Andie’s campaign to repel Ben is the movie’s engine, and it is a list rather than a story. She makes him miss the final moments of a Knicks game. She builds a scrapbook of their future children. She names his penis Princess Sophia. She stocks his apartment with feminine hygiene products, stuffed toys, pink coverings, a not-yet-housebroken puppy, and a “love fern.”
Then she shows up unannounced at his boys’ poker night and behaves outrageously. Ben breaks up with her. She is relieved.
His friends Tony and Thayer push him to stay the course. They propose couple’s therapy. Ben chases Andie down and she reluctantly agrees.
That is the plot. What carries it is a series of pranks, escalating in volume, connected by nothing except the calendar. The movie has a clock and no interior. Andie and Ben never have a conversation that reveals who they are when they are not performing a bit.
The Cast Is Doing More Than the Script
Hudson plays Andie. McConaughey plays Ben. Both are working hard, and the reviews gave them credit for it. The acting and the chemistry landed. The script and the predictable plot did not.
You can see why. Hudson can sell a joke and a tantrum in the same breath, and she makes Andie’s frustration at Composure feel real in the early scenes. McConaughey has the easier job and the better timing. His slow realization that he is trapped in his own scheme is the closest the film gets to a character arc.
Around them: Adam Goldberg as Tony, Thomas Lennon as Thayer, Bebe Neuwirth as Lana Jong, Michael Michele as Judy Spears, Shalom Harlow as Judy Green, Robert Klein as Phillip Warren, Kathryn Hahn as Michelle Rubin, Annie Parisse as Jeannie Ashcroft, Celia Weston as Glenda, Samantha Quan as Lori.
That is a deep bench for a movie that mostly asks them to react.
Where the Movie Came From
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is loosely based on the picture book of the same name by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long. The story and characters in the film are original. The dating don’ts from the book are included.
That origin explains the structure. A picture book is a list of jokes. A 116-minute movie needs more than a list, and this one never finds it. The dating don’ts arrive as set pieces, and set pieces do not accumulate. They just end.
The Numbers Behind a Hit That Does Not Earn Its Premise
The $177.5 million gross against a $50 million budget is the source’s own description of a box office success. It is not evidence the film works. Two liars, one clock, a title that tells you the whole movie — that is a pitch. Audiences bought the pitch.
The published critical score is 4.5 out of 10, which is Metacritic’s 45 out of 100. It is one score, expressed two ways, and it sits where the film does: not a disaster, not a success, a thing that happened and made money.
| Element | What the film does well | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Premise | Two people with opposite goals, one shared deadline | Neither goal requires them to change |
| Andie’s pranks | Escalate on schedule, land as jokes | Replace character with incident |
| Hudson and McConaughey | Chemistry carries scenes the script abandons | Cannot make a list into a relationship |
| The wager | Drives every scene | Is never examined |
The pranks are the clearest case. Making Ben miss the end of a Knicks game is a real joke about a real thing couples fight about. Naming his penis Princess Sophia is a joke about nothing except the movie’s willingness to say it. Stocking his apartment with pink coverings and a not-yet-housebroken puppy is a visual gag that lasts one scene.
The Wager Is the Whole Problem
Ben’s bet is that he can make any woman fall in love with him. Andie’s assignment is to make a man leave. Both of them are running an experiment on a person who has not consented to it.
The film treats this as a lark. It is the engine of every scene, and it is never examined. When the two finally learn the truth, the reveal is a plot turn, not a reckoning. The synopsis calls the film a tale of “sex, lies and outrageous romantic fireworks.” Two out of three, and the lies are the only part with teeth.
Compare what the movie does with Andie’s job. She wants to write about serious issues at a women’s magazine. That is a real conflict, and the film drops it the moment the pranks start. Lana Jong exists to be a foil and nothing else. Michelle’s breakup sets the article in motion and then the film moves on.
The film has a magazine, an ad agency, a diamond campaign, a Knicks game and a company ball, and it uses all of them as backdrops. None of them create a single obstacle that forces Andie or Ben to be honest before the last ten minutes.
What Holds Up and What Does Not
What holds up is the pairing. Hudson and McConaughey are the reason this movie is remembered and the reason it made $177.5 million. They are funny together, and the film knows it, which is why it keeps putting them in rooms and letting them talk over each other.
What does not hold up is everything the pairing is asked to carry. The script is a sequence of dating don’ts, and a sequence is not a story. The plot is predictable in the exact way the reviews said. You know where it is going, and the movie takes 116 minutes to get there.
The 4.5 out of 10 is not a verdict on Hudson or McConaughey. It is a verdict on a film that had a premise, two stars, and a book of jokes, and chose to film the jokes.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a hit that does not earn its own premise. It is watchable, and it is thin. The battle of wills is the title and the tagline, and the movie never bothers to find out what either of them was actually fighting for.
4.5/10 (Metacritic 45/100)
KEY FACTS
- Release: February 7, 2003 (United States); April 17, 2003 (Germany)
- Studio: Paramount Pictures
- Director: Donald Petrie
- Writers: Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, Burr Steers
- Runtime: 116 minutes
- Gross: $177.5 million
- Production budget: $50 million
- Score: 4.5/10 (Metacritic 45/100)
- Source book: Picture book by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long
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