HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

CAST: Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Michael Michele, Shalom Harlow, Bebe Neuwirth

DIRECTOR: Donald Petrie

"What finally puts it over is its leading lady: The movie is practically sewn onto her, like that knockout yellow Dior gown (designed by two Vera Wang refugees) she wears in the posters and the movie's climax…The good news is that she finally gets to show some comic spunk. She does dingy-blonde shtick in the manner of her mom, Goldie Hawn, but in quotation marks: She imitates Hawn and sends her up at the same time, and the combination makes her levitate. She and McConaughey are terrific together…They're a lovely screwball couple: They make beautifully discordant music together." --David Edelstein, Slate

"‘How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ stars Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, a young and attractive pair that no one wants to dislike, especially because they look so cute together and could use a career break right about now after a series of bleak film choices…no one seems to have realized that there is a line between an actress acting in an irritating way to amuse an audience and an actress whose performance is genuinely irritating. Hudson is not a practiced enough farceur to keep from crossing that line again and again, and the film, blinded by her youth and attractiveness, continually miscalculates the effectiveness of that performance." --Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

"Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey don't add up to a classic romantic team… They're not even Julia Roberts and Richard Gere…That said, ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ is so much better than, say, ‘Maid in Manhattan’ or ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ in that it actually bears comparison to the will-they-or-won't-they-get-together films of Hollywood's bygone golden era…Hudson can actually act, and she brings a blend of charm and intelligence to a role that's hardly Shakespearean. And McConaughey, who's been given numerous opportunities to break through at the box office, deftly walks the line between wimpy sensitivity and macho bluster." --Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"What begins like a cloddish imitation of TV's ‘Sex and the City’ then turns into a cloddish imitation of those late-'50s, ‘battle of the sexes’ romantic comedies like ‘Pillow Talk.’ Large chunks of the film seem like a record played at the wrong speed…McConaughey, who's never looked so good, is somehow able to project a believable personality despite the inadequate script…Hudson, unfortunately, seems forced to rely on her hair rather than her charm to triumph over the material, and it doesn't do the trick." --Jonathan Foreman, The New York Post

"It is a little better than the two other recent high-concept romantic comedies based in New York, ‘Two Weeks Notice’ and ‘Maid in Manhattan.’ This is largely because the writing is a bit sharper and the two stars, Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, have a prickly, hot-and-cold chemistry…If the movie provides no new insight into the contrasting behavior of men and women or the perils of postmodern urban dating, falling well shy of the not-too-high standard set by ‘Sex and the City’ on both fronts, it does have its tart, fizzy moments." --A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"Kate Hudson, with her sunburst glow, has the slightly dazed loveliness of an actress who can warm up the gawkiest of scenes. At times, she reminds you of her mother, Goldie Hawn, except without the cuddly narcissism; she's a Hawn who knows just when to stop holding her smile…From ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ to ‘Two Weeks Notice,’ it's now part of the design of our romantic comedies that they be composed of equal parts saccharin and cheese. Why should the formula change when moviegoers are buying?" --Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly