Themes: First Love, Sibling Relationships, Teen Pregnancy
Main Cast: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Trent Ford, Alexandra Holden, Dylan Baker
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Teen pop star Mandy Moore stars in the romantic comedy How to Deal. Directed by British filmmaker Clare Kilner, the script is based on two of author Sarah Dessen's popular teen novels: Someone Like You and That Summer. Halley (Moore) is a teenager trying to make sense of the faltering romantic relationships within her immediate social sphere. Her mother, Lydia (Allison Janney), can't seem get a date, while her father (Peter Gallagher) is getting remarried to a woman that nobody seems to like. Halley's wedding-obsessed sister, Ashley (Mary Catherine Garrison), is engaged to Lewis (MacKenzie Astin), a guy that is completely wrong for her. Meanwhile, bad boy Macon Forrester (Trent Ford) won't leave Halley alone. Just when she decides to become cynical about love because of all the romantic disappointments around her, a troubled situation involving her best friend Scarlett (Alexandra Holden) changes her outlook. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
Though it deserves credit for delving into the messier aspects of teen angst, popster Mandy Moore's second starring vehicle is as schizophrenic as the adolescent-girl mood swings it attempts to deconstruct. It becomes apparent early on that How to Deal's title is purely ironic, as Neena Beber's script -- adapted from not one but two young adult novels by Sarah Dessen -- finds most of the major characters avoiding major life crises with a cheery oblivion. There's just too much going on here for a 100-minute movie: Death, teen pregnancy, parental midlife crises, sibling nuptials, pot-smoking grandmas, and civil-war reenacting boyfriends all rear their ugly heads with alarming alacrity. How to Deal's slapdash editing, intrusive voice-over, and incessantly upbeat score don't help matters -- one gets the feeling that test audience/studio intervention won out over a more concise, emotionally resonant cut of the film. Certainly, the film is faultlessly performed: Allison Janney is warm and convincingly conflicted as the recent divorcée working out her own abandonment issues through her daughter, and the natural, understated Moore delivers on the promise she showed in the nerdy A Walk to Remember. Balancing humor with pathos is no easy task -- especially for a teen movie -- but week after week, TV's My So-Called Life accomplished just that, making How to Deal's missteps seem even more disappointing. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Andrew M. Stern - Art Director, Avy Kaufman - Casting, Stephanie Striegel - Co-producer, Alexandra Welker - Costume Designer, Jeffrey Steven Authors - First Assistant Director, Clare Kilner - Director, Janice Hampton - Editor, Shawna Callahan - Editor, Ted Field - Executive Producer, Scott Kroopf - Executive Producer, David Linde - Executive Producer, Chris Van Allsburg - Executive Producer, Toby Emmerich - Executive Producer, Michele Weiss - Executive Producer, David Kitay - Composer (Music Score), Jon Leshay - Musical Direction/Supervision, Dan Davis - Production Designer, Eric Edwards - Cinematographer, Erica Huggins - Producer, William Teitler - Producer, Cal Loucks - Set Designer, Henry Embry - Sound/Sound Designer, Neena Beber - Screenwriter, Sarah Dessen - Book Author
Halley Marie Martin (Mandy Moore) is a seventeen-year-old high school student who is disillusioned with love after seeing many dysfunctional relationships around her. Her parents are now divorced and her father, Len Martin (Peter Gallagher), a radio talk show host, has a new young girlfriend that the entire family despises; mainly because she's the reason for the divorce. Her mother, Lydia (Allison Janney), is now always alone while her sister, Ashley, is so overwhelmed by her upcoming wedding that she barely exists in the house anymore. On top of that, the shallowness of all the girls and guys at her school convinces Halley that finding true love is impossible. When tragedy strikes, the life of her best friend changes forever - and suddenly Halley is drawn closer to a classmate named Macon.
When Halley walks in on her best friend Scarlett having sex with her boyfriend, the high school soccer champ, Michael Sherwood, Halley tries to warn her of the complications that lie ahead. Ignoring her advice, Scarlett embarks on a summer fling with Michael. In the meantime, Halley must deal with Ashley and the rest of the Martins must deal with her soon-to-be in-laws; Louis Worscher's overbearing Southern parents, who still have a maid, who just happens to be African-American.
In the meantime, Halley runs into classmate, Macon Forrester, a slacker who never shows up for biology and is more interested in having fun than school work. He is Michael Sherwood's best friend.
A few weeks later, Michael dies of a heart defect on the soccer field while Halley, Scarlett and other classmates watch helplessly. While Scarlett does her best to look beautiful for Michael at his funeral, Macon gives a moving speech about his friend. Struggling with Michael's death, Scarlett, at age sixteen, soon learns that she is pregnant with his child. The two girls hatch an escape plan that is ultimately foiled when Scarlett's mother (also Lydia's best friend) catches Halley trying to pull the car into the garage. With Halley at her side, Scarlett reveals the pregnancy to her mother.
Meanwhile, things go awry when Halley finds Ashley drunk on the family's front porch. Finding a male stripper's thong around her neck, Halley, who is recovering from a broken arm she got after a car accident with Macon on New Year's Eve, witnesses the break-up of her sister's engagement. She also learns that her mother sneaks out once a week to have sex with a man she met a couple of weeks previous, Steve. After another make-up, Lewis proposes to Ashley again, this time at a crowded airport; she says yes. Halley's father, Len Martin marries his mistress, Lorna, in a beach-side ceremony, with guests from all over the world...or "within his radio frequency" as Halley puts it.
In the end, Ashley and Lewis are married, as Lewis puts his foot down on the boundaries between his marriage to Ashley and his parents. Scarlett gives birth to a baby girl, and Halley and Macon agree to pursue their relationship again.
The scenes were filmed at St. Timothy's Anglican Church in North Toronto, ON, Canada.
Scenes were also shot in the Westdale Village, Westdale, Ontario in Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Mandy Moore's house in the movie is shot on William Street, Oakville, Ontario
Mandy Moore cut her hair short because she felt it suited the role; the movie producers weren't happy about it. In the end they compromised and had her wear hair extensions for some of the movie and later had her hair being cut on screen written into the script.
