Kate Bosworth stars as a girl that wins a chance to meet her favorite movie star while her boyfriend fumes at home.
--Randy
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton
Directors: Robert Luketic
Producers: Lucy Fisher And Douglas Wick
Writers: Victor Levin
Features: n/a
Characters:
Rosalee Futch...Kate Bosworth
Tad Hamilton...Josh Duhamel
Pete Monash...Topher Grace
Cathy Feely...Ginnifer Goodwin
Nurse Betty...Amy Smart
Henry Futch...Gary Cole
Richard Levy The Driven...Nathan Lane
Richard Levy The Shameless...Sean Hayes
Genre: Comedy
Review:
"Win A Date With Tad Hamilton," is just what is sounds like-hokey! Worse than that it is hokey without being charming. It tries to be charming, but ends up monotonous and boring. It sort of has a fifties' flavor only it is set in modern times. That might be the main problem right there. The studio should have coughed up the money and had sets and costumes made for that time period. Instead the movie tries to pretend it is in the fifties by not showing anything too modern. Nice try, but the mindset fails to take hold in this case. The main action even takes place in small town USA or in this case a small town in West Virginia. Half of that action(actually using the word action is stretching it) is set in a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, which was undoubtedly a large sponsor of this film because when you come down to it this movie could be considered an extended commercial not unlike 1995's "Bye Bye Love" staring Matthew Modine that featured a McDonald's restaurant prominently. Kate Bosworth who plays Rosalee Futch must be perceived as having a bygone era's appeal as she is also to play sixties icon Sandra Dee to Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin in an upcoming movie. Topher Grace who plays Pete Monash has a modern yet fiftyish haircut and the obvious touch of his hit sitcom, "That 70's Show," to explain his presence. Rounding out the cast as Tad Hamiltom is Josh Duhamel, looking like he might have stepped out of a soap opera which he has("All My Children"). When you think about it most soap operas have a timelessness about them and got their start in the fifties. The name sounds like a cross between Tab Hunter and George Hamilton, two actors known for their faces more than their acting.
This movie starts out in a Piggly Wiggly grocery store where three friends are goofing around in the office. Pete Monash is the store manager and Rosie Futch and Cathy Feely(Gennifer Goodwin) are his employees/friends. Pete is secretely in love with Rosie and of course she has no clue. When Rosie sees an internet contest that wins you a date with her favorite movie star, Tad Hamilton, she enters and very shortly wins. She is whisked off to Hollywood to meet him. They have a platonic date to which Tad Hamilton is not accustomed, but he is so impressed with Rosie's down-home ways that he very shortly pops up at Rosie's Piggly Wiggly(I might as well help them get their money's worth) to try a change of life style much to Pete's dismay.
I'm not sure of what the length of this film is, but I have the feeling it is not much more than eighty-one minutes. Any film hovering near this mark is usually short for a reason- the audience won't be able to stay in their seat for any greater length. The time between Rosie entering the contest and winning is so short that there is no time for a buildup. It happens-boom she's in Hollywood. This is true for the amount of time that Tad Hamilton mulls over and decides to show up at the employee's lounge of Piggly Wiggly's in West Virginia. An example of how fast this movie moves is a scene at the airport when Rosie is leaving: Rosie turns to depart and then turns around before Pete has spoken the words for her to wait.
I do have to warn you that women liked this film. In other words it can be considered a chick flick by some. I don't consider it one because there was no scene inside a hospital. I know what got to the chicks. It was a line uttered by Pete to Tad describing what he liked about Rosie which Tad the Cad absconds with to use himself. Basically this line shows to Rosie that the person saying it has actually paid attention to her. Most guys can go out with a girl for a year or more and fail to know what color her eyes are when asked, so you can see how a girl can turn to putty when she thinks her beau cares enough to be interested in her.
A factor contributing greatly to the boredom of "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton" is that Tad Hamilton is actually a nice guy. The worst thing he did in the movie other than look handsome was to steal Pete's line, and he did that only because he was in love with Rosie too. So where is the conflict that a good movie has going for it? If Rosie goes with Tad it will be good and if she winds up with Pete it will be equally good. There is no bad guy in this movie. There is no tension. It is as easy to sympathize with Tad as it is with Pete. The viewer senses this wishy-washiness of the film and stops caring if they ever cared in the first place.
The songs in this movie are pretty bland other than Barry White's "Can't Get Enough Of Your Loving,
Baby" and Liz Phair's "Why Can't I." This is understandable because a not modern mood was trying to be set and too strong of a song would ruin the feeling.
The more I think about it this movie reminds me of the "Tammy" movies. Wow! I just looked it up and the plot is this plot, but in one movie Tammy is being romanced by a pilot and the other, a doctor. Tammy wins everybody over with her backwoods ways. "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton" wants to be like the "Tammy" movies, but isn't. Perhaps if Mandy Moore had the role of Rosie this film could have worked.
If you get stuck in this movie a good way to pass the time is to watch the different shades of color that Kate Bosworth's eyes keep changing to in different settings. I would give this movie two stars out of five stars.
----Randy