Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 96 minutes
The phrase average is a term that has been much maligned by our society. Think about it. The grade of “C” is looked down upon, but look at any definition of that grade and it will undoubtedly contain the word, “average.” Is there anything necessarily wrong with average? No. Win A Date With Tad
Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel of TV’s Las Vegas) is a hard-partying young star (think a younger Russell Crowe) with an image problem. His agent and manager (played by Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes) decide that he needs to become a nice guy again in order to get a much talked about role in an upcoming movie. Enter Pete (Topher Grace of TV’s That 70’s Show), the manager of a West Virginia Piggly Wiggly and his co-workers, the beautiful Rosalee (Kate Bosworth) and spastic Cathy. Despite Pete’s sarcastic asides about Hamilton (mainly to show the audience that he has a thing for Rosalee), Rosalee and Cathy are in love with him and when they find out about the image makeover “Win A Date,” they raise money for the entry fee.
Sure enough, Rosalee is selected and is off to LA to meet Mr. Hamilton. They are both nervous about meeting the other (Tad thinks this country hick will be ugly and Rosalee doesn’t want to screw up). Though their date gets off to a rocky start (she has motion sickness in a limo), they soon find that they like each other. Rosalee even seems to be a breath of fresh air encouraging him to be on the right track. She even refuses a drink at his house because she doesn’t want her “carnal treasure” (as Pete humorously called it when he warned her about going to California) taken. When she’s back in West Virginia, Pete is about to tell her of his yearning for her when Tad steps back in. It seems that Rosalee affected him so much that he had to see her again. And though Pete continues to warn Rosalee about being hurt, Tad does everything right. Will Pete ever tell Rosalee of his love? Who will Rosalee pick? Do you already know the answer to these questions even without seeing the movie?
As a romantic comedy, this movie is pretty good. There is a definite attraction between Rosalee and Pete/Tad and I laughed a fair amount of times. Sure the humor ranges from mild to absolutely hoary (everyone in LA has a cell phone, yuk, yuk, yuk). Grace and Duhamel come off well but they are playing characters so similar to their TV images that this can’t really be called their “breakout” role. The supporting cast is very capable, though, and succeed in making their one-note characters somewhat more interesting than just ciphers for the plot.
The direction by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) is capable. Somewhat less than satisfactory is the script by Victor Levin, a man who‘s only really worked on sitcoms before (and it shows). As previously mentioned, the humor is pretty lame and Lane/Hayes are stuck with some kind of buddy routine so bad that even Laurel and Hardy would have needed a bunch of help pulling it off. A good amount of the dialogue is also pretty wooden. Witness a bartender’s speech to Pete near the end; what she says is wonderful, but if someone were to tell you that in real-life, you’d laugh in their face. I could have also done without the pop music tracks blaring the obvious emotions you’re supposed to feel whenever the thin dialogue wasn’t present.
So at the end, we are left with the definitive average movie. Considering all the television credentials of the people involved (notice how many times I used the word ‘TV’ above), it’s lucky the movie is this good. There are some nice points made and some enjoyable scenes with happy, easy-to-look-at people. I laughed, albeit mainly at the sarcastic zingers by Grace and Lane. I will see many movies worse than this next year and I will see many movies better. At least this movie seemed to be aware of its own mediocrity. I recommend this movie, but only if there isn’t much else of a choice at the multiplex.