How to Lose a Guy in 10 days

This topic contains:

• details about How to Lose a Guy in 10 days' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of How to Lose a Guy in 10 days completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 27 April 2003.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 days contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message
• overall comments

A synopsis of the story

Andie Anderson is a ‘would be’ serious journalist working for a women’s magazine called Composure which publishes articles such as “I lost my virginity now I want it back”. Andie decides to write an article called ‘How to lose a guy in 10 days’ after her friend Michelle was ‘dumped’ by her boyfriend. Andie’s boss wants her to write from experience, therefore not only does she have to write the article but she has to find an unsuspecting guy to test her theories on. She is promised that if she does she’ll be allowed to write something serious.

The guy she chooses is an ambitious advertising man called Ben. Ben on the other hand has taken on a bet to prove that he can make any girl fall in love with him and if he does he’ll win a prestigious diamond company’s business. The girl he chooses is of course Andie. The result is sometimes hilarious with Andie making all the wrong moves designed to turn a guy off while Ben puts up with all of this in order to win his bet. In the process they end up falling in love but are not prepared for the truth of the whole affair.

Use of violence

There is only one act of violence in the movie when a man takes offence and punches Ben out.

Material that may scare children

There is nothing scary in this film.

Sexual references

There are quite a lot of sexual references in this movie including the following:

• Andie’s friend Michelle talks about the first time she had sex and that it made her cry.
• Andie and Ben go back to his apartment where she rings Michelle to tell her that she’s not going to sleep with him because ‘she can practise self control - not like some people’.
• Andie calls Ben’s penis ‘Princess Sophia’ and asks if Princess Sophia wants to ‘come out to play’.
• Ben replies that she could have given it more of a masculine name like Spike or Butch.
• Ben and Andie talk openly about sex in front of a therapist who is in fact Michelle.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some sexual activity including:

• When Ben is knocked out he consoles himself by rubbing his head on Andie’s breasts.
• Andie and Ben fall on the bed and kiss passionately but decide to stop as it’s going ‘too fast’.
• Ben and Andie take each other’s tops off and shower together – no nudity is shown.

Use of substances

There is drinking of wine and beer in a bar. Ben and his friends smoke cigars while playing poker.

Coarse language

There is frequent coarse language including the following words:

• arse
• horseshit
• bullshit
• fart
• holy crap.

They play a card game with Ben’s family called ‘bullshit’ where this word is repeated many times.

The movie's message

The take home message from this film would be that if you don’t care about someone else’s feelings you could end up getting hurt yourself.

This film is about two ruthless people who value their career more than their relationships with other people. Therefore there are no values in this film that parents would like to encourage but several that they might like to discourage including:

• deceit
• lying
• being uncaring
• selfishness
• remorselessness

Overall comments

While the premise of this film is somewhat weak, it does have its funny moments and would be useful for girls to know how not to handle a relationship.

There is nothing scary or violent (apart from that one scene) that would cause concern for parents; however the content of the film would make it unsuitable for young children who would find it boring.