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Friday
19Sep2008

Movie Review - 'My Best Friend's Girl'

DateFriday, September 19, 2008 at 1:27PM
My Best Friend's Girl

Starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, and Jason Biggs
Directed by Howard Deutch
Rated R


mybestfriendsgirl_galleryposter.jpg If you were making a movie named after a hit song, how many times would you have that hit song played in the 90 minutes you have my attention? Opening credits, maybe once when it fits in context? I counted four uses of The Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl" in My Best Friend's Girl, and I may have missed one or two. Worse, it plays over the closing credits...twice!

But of course, by that time, My Best Friend's Girl has already done its most significant damage. Like a lot of romantic comedies, the setup makes precious little sense. The things you see would never really happen. But because it's actually a male-oriented rom-com (like Wedding Crashers), there's a lot more dirty sex talk.

Tank (Dane Cook) is "an emotional terrorist," the guy other guys hire when their girlfriends dump them to show the girls they've made a huge mistake. Cook takes the girls out on the worst dates of their lives, tries to get in their pants, and sends them running back to the safety and comfort of their exes. Tank, apparently, makes a comfortable living.

But something happens when his roommate and best friend Dustin (Jason Biggs) hires Tank to run his scheme on Alexis (Kate Hudson), who is not Dustin's ex-girlfriend but rather the one rebuking his advances. The something that happens, as you might expect, is the advancement of the screenplay. Tank finds himself falling for Alexis, which ruins everything for everyone. Including, it should be noted, the audience.

This is the closest Dane Cook has come to realizing his standup persona in a film, and I'll leave it for you to judge whether or not that's a good thing. He riffs in a way that is patently scripted, yet none of the lines are anything special. There are two real oddities in My Best Friend's Girl. The first is how completely wasted Kate Hudson is. It's almost as if she's not there, with the thrust of the action being the relationship between Tank and Dustin.

The second and most jarring curiosity is the sad cameo by Alec Baldwin, playing Tank's father. Baldwin is usually a spot-on comic actor, but man does he strike out here. He's just flailing around throwing out lewd dialogue and it just goes nowhere.

My Best Friend's Girl would be fine for an undercooked, dirty rom-com, but it's just so obnoxious. Being unfunny is one thing, but actively grating on people's nerves is another. Unlike Wedding Crashers, which had fresh dialogue and two fun characters (plus a sense of direction), this movie has two characters you couldn't care less about and dialogue that sounds like it came with the romantic comedy template as part of a screenwriting software package.

It's a shame Kate Hudson sees herself as limited to these completely resistible romantic comedies. She's more beautiful on film than in photographs, really has a great, fun quality like her mother, and is smart enough to do deeper work. I don't expect much from Dane Cook; he's playing with what's left of the house money. But Hudson should get out while she still can.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

Hi!
My name is Jessika!

Friday, December 12, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterpaxCoaxnono

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