How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is one of those I Love Lucy-type romantic comedies where everyone is hiding something and you are the only one who knows all the secrets. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t even pay attention to the tagline of this movie: “One of them is lying. So is the other.” I’d seen the trailer and being a junkie for romantic comedies, I immediately wanted to see it, expecting the story about all the things you do to lose a boyfriend. I was honestly surprised by the other big lie in this movie.

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is a beautiful writer for the New York fashion magazine, Composure. She has two best friends, Michelle (Kathryn Hahn) and Jeannie (Annie Parisse), who also work at the magazine and who are Andie’s biggest supporters. While Michelle’s boyfriend problems are an important part of the plot, Andie can have any man she wants.

Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) is a ruthless ad man specializing in sporting goods and beer, who is willing to do anything to land his first classy account selling diamonds. He also has two best friends, Tony (Adam Goldberg) and Thayer (Thomas Lennon), who also work at the ad agency and who are Ben’s biggest supporters. Although you never see it, Ben is supposedly a womanizer who’s never had a long-term relationship.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what they call "high-concept" in Hollywood.

So here’s how this story of lies and deceit begins: Michelle breaks up with her boyfriend. She is too sad at the brainstorming meeting for Composure’s next issue and doesn’t have her story idea ready. The boss suggests someone write about the breakup and Andie ends up with the How-To-Lose-A-Guy-in-10-Days story assignment.

Then you have the Judys. The Judys work at the ad agency and are competing for the diamond account that Ben is after. The Judys also met with Andie’s boss about advertising in Composure magazine. That’s where they heard about the How-To-Lose-A-Guy-in-10-Days story that Andie has to write.
And here’s where everything gets crazy. Andie and her girlfriends go a bar after work to find her victim. It just happens that Ben, the Judys and their boss are all there too!

In vying for the diamond account, Ben argues that he understands women and relationships and to prove it, takes a dare that he can make a woman fall in love with him by the time of the big diamond account party which just happens to be in 10 days. The Judys, being the weasely, evil little connivers that they are, pick out his victim who happens to be Andie.

So, Andie does everything to get Ben interested for a day or two then starts to do the things that ought to make him run screaming from the relationship. She becomes desperately thirsty in the final moments of a basketball game. She bursts out crying in a restaurant saying he thinks she’s fat. She decorates his apartment with stuffed animals and doilies. And so on. Meanwhile, Ben is trying to make her fall in love with him.

These scenes are hilarious, but intermingled with a number of honest interactions between Andie and Ben that begin to truly build their relationship. Just when you think it’s going to be OK, the 10 days are up and they have to go to the big diamond account party together. The Judys work their wicked magic and make Ben’s friends think Andie knows about the bet which they of course ask her to keep a secret. Meanwhile, Ben finds out about the How-To-Lose-A-Guy-in-10-Days story. Needless to say all hell breaks loose.

Since this is a typical romantic comedy, you probably already can guess that they fight (while singing a song!) and separate. They mope about for a little while and then he chases her down on his motorcycle while she is in a cab on her way to the airport to leave town. They kiss and all is happy and good in the world.

I think the one thing that stands out as awkward about this movie is Andie’s thing about writing stories with substance. As an educated woman that just didn’t sit well for me – if she wants to be a serious writer why would she be working for Composure magazine? It seemed like just a plot tool to give her more depth, but all it succeeded in doing for me was making her career less believable. In addition, near the end of the movie she is leaving to “go be a real writer” and he stops her on the bridge like she’s not going to go. For me, this really took away from the satisfaction of the beginning of their real relationship.

None the less, mushy, romantic movies fill some kind of need I have to see the world the way we wished it was in junior high, you know, like a mushy romantic movie! How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days is one those movies, a great, silly romantic comedy that is just plain fun to watch and overcomes its high-concept origins.