Themes: Unrequited Love, Small-Town Life, Actor's Life
Main Cast: Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, Josh Duhamel, Nathan Lane, Sean Hayes
Release Year: 2004
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) directs the romantic comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! from a screenplay by TV scriptwriter Victor Levin. Famous Hollywood actor Tad Hamilton (soap opera star Josh Duhamel making his film debut) is trying to promote his new movie. His manager (Sean Hayes) and his agent (Nathan Lane) both convince him to participate in a dating contest in order to improve his bad-boy image. The contest is won by Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth), an attractive young checkout girl who works at a Piggly Wiggly in West Virginia. When Tad ends up falling in love with her, he's willing to give up big-city life and move to small-town America. Meanwhile, her best friend and co-worker Pete (Topher Grace) is finally motivated to reveal his secret crush on her. Rosalee finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between her closest friend and a dream date. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
For the first time in his film career, Topher Grace plays the kind of hands-in-pockets underdog hero that made him famous on the small screen, and it carries Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! pretty far. The other two-thirds of the love triangle -- Kate Bosworth as a perky convenience store clerk, Josh Duhamel as a studly movie star -- also work well, making the film a sweet little confection with a nostalgic 1950s ethos. The title itself hearkens back to a pre-ironic era when "dreamy" matinee idols made impressionable teens swoon, and the film is smart to keep that light sensibility, even set well within modern times. Events never careen toward the sensational, which means former TV scribe Victor Levin can give his characters the depth to exceed the one-dimensionality such a story might have engendered. In lesser hands, Duhamel's every move would have been laced with wrong intentions, while Grace would have been the "gracious" loser, as it were. Instead, Duhamel is fairly generous, and Grace fairly petty. It's amusing watching them jockey for position, trying to appeal to different aspects of Rosalee's persona, with Grace's Pete gradually losing any sway over her. Anyone in the audience who's lost a significant other to a flashier candidate will sympathize with the uphill task. The film has the pastel colorings and core sensibilities of director Robert Luketic's previous outing, Legally Blonde, without that film's oversimplifications and annoying caricatures. It's still essentially fluff, but it's slightly more substantial fluff. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Mark Worthington - Art Director, Joseph Middleton - Casting, Catherine Adair - Costume Designer, L. Justin Muller - First Assistant Director, Robert Luketic - Director, Scott Hill - Editor, Gail Lyon - Executive Producer, William S. Beasley - Executive Producer, Ed Shearmur - Composer (Music Score), Laura Z. Wasserman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Darren Higman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Missy Stewart - Production Designer, Peter Lyons Collister - Cinematographer, Doug Wick - Producer, Lucy Fisher - Producer, Stephanie Gilliam - Set Designer, David Ronne - Sound/Sound Designer, Freddie Hice - Stunts Coordinator, Matt Kutcher - Special Effects Supervisor, Victor Levin - Screenwriter, Daryn Okada - Second Unit Camera, Alison Savitch - Visual Effects Supervisor, Richard L. Anderson - Supervising Sound Editor, Threshold Digital Research Labs - Visual Effects, Susan Mina Eschelbach - Set Decorator
The plot focuses on two young adults named Rosalee and Pete, who work together at a Piggly Wiggly supermarket in West Virginia. Pete secretly pines for Rosalee's affections, but he is too shy to confront her. One day Rosalee wins a contest to meet Tad Hamilton, a major Hollywood movie star. She travels to California for one date with Tad. The actor begins to yearn for values and a better direction for his life, and so he journeys to West Virginia to hang around with Rosalee. This leads to a romance with Rosalee and a rivalry with Pete.
Behind the scenes
The movie was released on VHS and DVD on April 20, 2004. The DVD featured 15 deleted scenes and a revised box art, which made Tad look more sinister.
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! received mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the film gained a metascore of 52 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, with reviews ranging from 40 to 75 percent.[5]
Box office
Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! opened with a low $9 million at the box-office. It finished its run with $17 million in the U.S. and $5 million overseas bringing the total to $23 million. Considering that its budget was $21 million excluding advertisement, the film was not considered a financial success.
Cast
Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth) - A sweet, ordinary girl who works at a Piggly Wiggly store, in West Virginia, with her two best friends Pete and Cathy. She is madly obsessed with Tad Hamilton, and her life is turned upside-down when the two begin dating.
Pete Monash (Topher Grace) - Rosalee's best friend and work-mate. He is secretly in love with Rosalee and is desperate to protect her from Tad Hamilton. He is sometimes seen with his pet dog.
Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) - A famous, heartthrob, Hollywood actor. He goes on a date with normal town girl, Rosalee for a publicity stunt and ends up falling in love with her.
Cathy Feely (Ginnifer Goodwin) - Rosalee's female best friend. She too, is madly obsessed with Tad Hamilton.
Richard Levy the Driven (Nathan Lane) - Tad Hamilton's agent. He constantly worries over Tad's actions.
Richard Levy the Shameless (Sean Hayes) - Tad Hamilton's agent. He also worries over Tad's actions but is much more concerned with himself.
Angelica (Kathryn Hahn) - The barmaid at the bar that Rosalee and her friends often go to. She has a crush on Pete and sometimes gives him advice.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to this film is titled Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!: Music From The Motion Picture
There are no Piggly Wigglies franchised in West Virginia. Also the airport shown in the beginning to be Yeager Airport is actually not the real Yeager Airport which is very distinctive in that shortly after the runway ends there is a sharp drop in elevation.
