What do you get when you combine a Hollywood movie star, and a small town grocery clerk? How about a recipe for another movie featuring a best friend who falls for the girl he can’t have. Although it’s been done time after time with movies like “Pretty in Pink,” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” something is different with Dreamworks’ “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton.”
Rosalee Futch( Kate Bosworth) is a checker at the Piggly Wiggly in rural West Virginia. She represents the groupie in all of us, who often wonder what it would be like to meet a certain unattainable idol.
At her side is her witty best friend and co-worker Pete (Topher Grace), who is ironically in the same situation as Rosalee. He sees her as his idol and keeps her on a pedestal, but rather than unveil his true feelings, he keeps her as only a friend.
Rosalee then wins a date with her favorite movie star Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), and ironically, the tables turn. Hamilton is amazed by Futch’s purity and begins to fall in love with her. And just when Pete thinks things couldn’t get worse, Hamilton moves to Fraziers Bottom and makes Pete’s life a living hell.
Grace does such an exceptional job at playing a bitter, yet hilarious rival to Tad Hamilton that he almost does to the audience what Duhamel should be doing. He is a scene-stealer.
With more of a romantic touch than a comedic swipe, this film gets to the heart of all of us who think that love is just beyond our reach. There’s a scene in the movie, where they attempt to “intimidate” Hamilton, Pete describes all six of Rosalee’s smiles.
I liked this scene for a couple of reasons. One, it makes the story line so much more believable. In real life, the details of those we love are things that we often memorize. Pete doesn’t just like the way Rosalee smiles; he knows when, why and how she does it.
The second reason why this scene impressed me, was because when Pete tells Hamilton that if he hurts Rosalee, he will either “tear him apart with his bare hands, or with a vicious rhetoric.” This shows the audience more depth to the character Grace is portraying.
Another character that throws in additional laughs is Ginnifer Goodwin who stars as Rosalee’s other quirky best friend, Cathy.
Also present are Nathan Lane as Richard Levy, Tad’s agent, and Sean Hayes as Richard Levy, Tad’s manager, who both play roadblocks in Hamilton’s new game of life.
Although not Oscar worthy, I enjoyed this film. It’s almost Hollywood’s way of reminding us that sometimes, we need not to look at the big screen to find romance. Sometimes we can find it with the other hand inside the popcorn bucket.
