WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! offers cardboard characters, has very few truly funny moments, and is about as predictable as a movie can get. Did I mention I also found it to be enjoyable despite my better critical judgment? This is one of those movies people can't argue about -- you either like it for what it is or you don't, and that's it. There's no point debating the film's merits and flaws because it all comes down to how it rubs you. I'm not saying those who dislike it are necessarily wrong in their objections, but I do disagree with them.


There's one very distinct and obvious reason I enjoyed TAD HAMILTON: Topher Grace. If you still aren't familiar with this young comedian, he's best known for playing Eric on That 70's Show and also had small roles in TRAFFIC (in which he proved he has real acting chops) and OCEAN'S ELEVEN. Truth is, I think he's probably one of the most promising comedic talents of his generation and over the next ten years will slowly gather more of a following. In this film he basically continues the same self-deprecating shtick he's so good at on television, and if you like this sort of stuff then chances are you'll find a way to overlook all of the film's problems. Kate Bosworth, who you may recognize from either BLUE CRUSH or WONDERLAND, fills the role of the "cute girl" nicely, and Josh Duhamel is good as the self-centered title character, but there's no question this thing belongs to Grace.

I think the reason I wasn't bothered by the film's predictability goes beyond the fact that it's a romantic comedy and by nature they're supposed to be predictable. In the opening scene, Grace and Bosworth are watching one of Tad Hamilton's movies in a theater, and Grace mockingly suggests that he thinks the guy and girl are going to end up together. Of course, no matter what happens we know this will be the result of our movie as well, and by acknowledging this I no longer cared that there would be few surprises along the way. If you're going to make a movie in a genre that's been played out, the story had better be self-aware to some extent. I find it much more annoying when a movie like this pretends to be unique and turns out to be anything but. WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! isn't great and may not be the type of film you'll even remember a month from now, but at least the people who made it weren't trying to make us believe otherwise.

Posted February 2, 2004 | link