How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days -- 2003 -- PG-13

This film had an excellent premise to spring from with a ton of potential that it executed very well.

Andie Anderson is the "how to" girl in a local magazine who announces she'll write an article about dating mistakes women make and drive a guy away, hence the title. Ben Barry is an advertising guy who wants a big time diamond account and announces as a bet to win the account that he can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days. And who should his competitors have happened to visit that very day? Why Andie who they spot at that very party and point her out for him to snag. 

The antics they go through in her trying to get rid of him and him trying to keep her are hilarious. He gets to the point where he hates her, but can't get rid of her because of the bet. She has to drive him off because of the story, but is beginning to like him.

Sure, some of it is very predictable because it follows the tried and true romantic comedy framework, but it is more fun than a lot of films out there.

While Ben's character was rounded out pretty well, Andie's was a little thin on the backstory. The separation element near the end (so important for romantic comedies) was a little contrived, but played on one of his strengths. This one has a sequence of strong language where the family plays a game of B.S. (if you now the game, you know what it is), and they actually say the full word over and over (it's actuallya wonder they held onto the PG-13 rating). Anything else could have been used to control the language element, but it managed to fit into the plot rather well.

So this is a comedy that is funny and cute. It works fairly well throughout, and has a killer premise which is likely why it was made to begin with.