Reel Reflections movie review

Fresh faces shine on-screen

As one character in "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!" says, "Sometimes Goliath kicks the shit out of David. It's just nobody tells those stories." In a whirlwind plot, however, the flick manages to portray the triumphs of both David and Goliath. Under the guise of a romantic comedy, "Win A Date" reenacts the biblical duel, featuring a Hollywood giant and small-town, good guy.

In the film, Josh Duhamel (NBC's "Las Vegas") plays megastar and heartthrob Tad Hamilton. At the advice of his agent and manager (Sean Hayes, "Will and Grace" and Nathan Lane, "The Producers"), he agrees to the titular contest in an attempt to clean up his bad-boy image.

Inevitably and in standard genre fashion, Tad falls for pretty, wholesome contest-winner Rosalee Futch, (Kate Bosworth, "Blue Crush"), much to the chagrin of her Piggly Wiggly manager and long-time friend, Pete (Topher Grace, "That 70's Show").

The plot is your average boy-meets-girl, boy-falls-in-love-with-girl, girl-becomes-torn-between-two-guys story line. This form has been used to varying degrees of success since the beginning of film, and "Win A Date" falls somewhere in the middle.

The script gets off to a somewhat slow start. The jokes seem a little bit off, either due to the writing or the delivery, but as the movie progresses, the comedy improves. Whereas the jokes seemed forced in the beginning, the actors eventually start to gel and the jokes become funnier.

Writer Victor Levin, whose most notable work prior to this is television's "Mad About You," makes a respectable debut into the world of major motion pictures. The script is, at times, trite, and some of the humor misses its mark — most notably the overly hormonal dialogue of Rosalee's friend Cathy (Ginnifer Goodwin, "Mona Lisa Smile"), but as a whole, the humor suffices.

Director Robert Luketic's latest project is as bright and shiny as his last — "Legally Blonde." There are no surprises in his directing, right down to the climactic rain storm that no love story seems to be without.

The saving grace and most entertaining element of this movie are really its actors. As hometown boy Pete, Grace gets a chance to show off his chops on the big screen. Grace has a natural, charmingly awkward delivery that makes even the most prosaic lines engaging. His is the most appealing performance from the lead actors.

As Goliath to Pete's David, Tad also is endearing. "Win A Date" is Duhamel's first starring film role and, along with his more obvious physical appeal, he manages to give some depth to a character that easily could come off as one-dimensional.

As the apex of this love triangle, Bosworth's Rosalee is everything the heroine should be — pretty, smart and completely oblivious to the feelings of the man who's been in love with her his whole life. Bosworth's performance is kind of like a Saltine cracker, enjoyable enough, but not something for which you'd go out of your way.

As for the supporting cast, Hayes and Lane are entertaining as usual, but their roles are almost nonexistent — only brought in for basic plot development and random humor. Unfortunately, the role of Rosalee and Pete's friend Cathy was much more prominent.

It's hard to know whether to blame Goodwin or the writer for this obnoxious character. Goodwin's Cathy has the tendency to break out into flights of trashy romance novel fancy for no apparent reason. These outbursts, one would assume, are meant to be outrageous and shocking, but come off pointless and random.

In the end, "Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!" is what most romantic comedies turn out to be — cute. It's a good time without delusions of depth, and that's just fine.