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Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) is hot! He's a big time actor with a likable onscreen presence and a persona built to match. When Tad gets caught by a tabloid being beyond bad boy reckless, his image needs a makeover. It's a good thing his agent Richard Levy (Nathan Lane) and his manager Richard Levy (Sean Hayes) have a vested interest in his continued success. They dream up a scheme offering a date with Tad for charity. You can save the children and stare at Tad for a night, all in one fell swoop.

Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth) has been in love with the Tad the world chooses to know since she can remember. She and her plucky friend, Cathy (Ginnifer Goodwin) drag their third mate, Pete (Topher Grace) to Tad flicks galore. He goes, because he is pretty much in love with Rosie, the girl he has known for twenty-two years, and he is waiting for just the right time to tell her. When the 'Win a Date' opportunity arises, Rosalee and Cathy start a can drive at the Piggly Wiggly where all three work to raise the money for Rosalee to enter. And, wouldn't you know it, sweet little Miss Futch wins.

She goes to Hollywood, stays at a beautiful hotel, and shares a beautiful evening with Tad after she's done tripping on her tongue and puking in the limo. Tad even asks her back to his house, with all that that implies. She gracefully declines his offer to come a little further inside, to his great surprise. In that moment, she earns a bit of his respect and starts a spark of admiration, the same spark that will lead him back to West Virginia to know her more and try to win her heart.

For as attractive a cast as this film has put together, all of them are as talented as they are adorable, it seems. And funny. Topher Grace has a way of turning a line to wring the absolute most out of it that he can. On his tongue, "Guard your carnal treasure!" becomes a desperate and hilarious last gasp effort to hold on to Rosalee before she boards the plane to her new date and new life. And, Josh Duhamel, for all of his movie star gorgeousness, is hilarious, as well. The fact that this guy, with charisma spilling out of his every pore, has enough of a sense of who he is to also be funny, well, you just have to love him.

The women are equally lovely and funny. Kate Bosworth can do the beautiful, sweet girl thing without bogging down into Meg Ryan territory. Because of her, Rosalee remains a grounded and intelligent individual willing to tell it like it is, willing to look at Tad and tell him that he can't love her so soon, only the idea of her. Ginnifer Goodwin, who many will recognize from "Ed," is her opposite in many ways. She is the girl, like so many others, willing to offer Tad anything that will make for a memorable moment -- anything. Her take on the sexual nature of people is funny and honest. In addition, Kathryn Hahn plays a bartender who has fallen hard for Pete. Her best scene can be found among the deleted scenes on the DVD, but she still gets some good screen time in the film as shown.

Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes make quite a pair. When you see the film, you may wonder why they aren't around more. There are some great scenes with them among the deleted fare on the DVD, as well. They banter and riff and one-up and one-up again. Whoever came up with the casting is quite brilliant, and I would like to see the Levys find a buddy project of their own one day.

Gary Cole plays Rosalee's dad, a guy some of us might recognize a bit in the mirror, movie friends. He lives in West Virginia, but he reads Variety online and knows the box office numbers. He wants to fix Tad the cool Hollywood drink and talk business, while Tad, the true insider, embodies the business to a degree that requires no such conversation. Congrats to the costume people who help Cole make this a truly memorable character. The T-shirts cracked me up.

Lastly, in a film full of scene stealers, an actor named Sam Pancake makes his mark. His reaction to Tad is not only classic, it's appropriate and hilarious. I almost wish Tad had let him give the massage thing a shot, 'cuz that would have been a funny scene.

Congrats to director Robert Luketic, writer Victor Levin, the people in charge of getting the music together for one of the most infectious pop soundtracks of recent memory, the editing responsible for using that music in such creative and clever ways, etc. etc. This movie manages to be an 'in' for movie lovers. We see the way things are from the other side. We see how actors quote themselves and we quote them and we quote movies and they quote life. Sometimes all of that back and forth can get confusing, especially for the people trying to live in and around it, trying to find an honest moment in something slightly artificial. In that way, this movie seems to know itself. It's like looking from one mirror into another and seeing image after image through time.

Dating Tad Hamilton may not be your dream come true, but it is a refreshing way to spend a couple of hours. It's like pink cotton candy -- irresistibly sweet and light and fluffy like air. It will make you laugh and make you smile, and you may just find yourself dreaming of another such engagement.

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originally posted: 01/03/05 14:11:54
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