How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is the “How to….” Girl for a popular magazine called Composure.  Andie enjoys writing the how to stories but wishes she could write about something she is more interested and passionate in such as politics, poverty or religion.  Andie’s friend and colleague Michelle Rueben (Kathryn Hahn) is not very good with romance and keeps making mistakes.  Andie offers to write an article called “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” using Michelle as inspiration.  Andie plans to date a guy and then do what she can to get him to dump her by using classic mistakes like most women like Michelle make.

Meanwhile an advertising executive called Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) is striving for the chance to win a pitch to advertise diamonds.  When Ben’s boss questions his knowledge on love, Ben replies by betting he could make any woman fall in love with him if he wanted to.  Ben’s boss Phillip Warren (Robert Klein) is impressed with Ben’s answer so he decides to make a bet with him.  If Ben can make any women fall in love with him before the important upcoming ball which takes place in 10 days then he can advertise for the new diamond company.

Judy Spears (Michael Michele) and Judy Green (Shalom Harlow) do not like this idea as they also want to advertise the new diamond company.  The Judy’s will do whatever it takes to make sure Ben loses the bet so they can have the campaign.  The Judy’s were at a meeting at Composure earlier in the day so they know all about Andie and what she has to do for her next article.

Later that night Andie and her friends/colleagues Michelle and Jeannie (Annie Parisse) go out to a club so Andie can find the man she is going to use for her article.  Ben and the two Judy’s happen to be in the same club at the same time.  They Judy’s spot Andie and encourage Ben to go and talk to her.  Andie talks to a couple of men first buy they are engaged or not interested.  When Ben approaches her, they start talking and they both think they have found the perfect person to use for their articles. Neither of them reveal their true intentions to each other. 

Their first few days together are perfect and they both get along together so Ben thinks winning the bet is going to be easy.  They go to watch basketball games and have romantic dinners out.  Andie then plots what she needs to do to get Ben to break up with her.  She becomes clingy and annoying and ruins his boy’s night when he plays poker with his friends.  The couple go to the cinema and Andie talks through it which results in Ben getting punched and knocked out for a few seconds.  Andie also start moving lots of pink, girly accessories into Ben’s apartment.  Ben continues to stick it out with Andie as he really wants to win the bet and hopes he can get her to fall in love with him.

The couple come close to breaking up after Andie is not happy that Ben has not been looking after their love fern.  They agree to finish the relationship and Andie leaves the apartment, thinking finally. Ben’s friends Tony (Adam Goldberg) and Thayer (Thomas Lennon) convince Ben to try couples therapy and it will get him closer to the 10 day mark.  Ben goes running after Andie and asks her to go to couple therapy, which she agrees to and she says she knows the perfect councillor who could sort Ben out.

Andie’s perfect councillor is her friend Michelle which Ben does not know, he thinks it is a real session.  While at couple’s therapy, Michelle comes up with idea of going to visit Ben’s family in Staten Island for the weekend to help solve Ben’s problems.  On their weekend away, Ben and Andie begin to form a genuine bond.  Ben teaches her to ride his motorcycle and they play a game of cards with all Ben’s family.  Ben also refers to Andie as his girlfriend when introducing her to his family.

Once back home, Andie goes to speak to her boss Lana (Bebe Neuwrth) to tell her she can no longer write the article as she has strong feelings for him.  Lana insists it is too late as the magazine’s front cover is already.  The 10 days is up and it is the night of the ball and to find out if Ben has made Andie fall in love with him.  Phillip goes over to talk to Andie to see if she does love it or not which she admits she does but asks him not to tell Ben.  Phillip then goes over to Ben and says “met her, she loves you, you win”.  Judy and Judy hear this conversation and are jealous so they decide to call trouble.  They decide to tell Tony and Thayer that Andie knew about the bet and she was playing along to help Ben.  Tony and Thayer run over to Andie and beg her to keep quiet not realising that she knew nothing about the bet.  At the same time Lana is talking to Ben about Andie and her how to story, not realising that he is the man Andie is writing about.

Andie is mad and decides to humiliate Ben in front of many important people.  She gets up on the stage, grabs a microphone and tells the audience that Ben has prepared a ‘special treat’ which was to sing a song.  Andie then runs off the stage and heads for the exit.  Ben then declares they have prepared a duet so Andie gets dragged back on stage.  The couple then ran off the stage and argue outside. They are both hurt as they have been used and lied to.  Ben and Andie go their separate ways after the fight and Andie decides to quit her job so she can go and write about the things she is interested in.  Andie’s ‘how to’ article is published and Ben’s friends encourage him to read it.  In the article Andie explains how she “lost the one guy she has ever fell for”. Ben rushes to her office to find out she has quit.  He catches her going in to a taxi and decides to follow it on his motor bike.  He manages to catch up with her and stop the taxi, where they reveal their true feelings for each other and Ben instructs the taxi to turn back and take Andi’s belongings back to her home.