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, RoviReview
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, RoviCast
- Kate Bosworth - Rosalee Futch
- Topher Grace - Pete
- Josh Duhamel - Tad Hamilton
- Nathan Lane - Tad's Agent, Richard Levy
- Sean Hayes - Tad's Manager, The Other Richard Levy
Credit
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| Win Win (2011 Film), Wimzie's House: You're Special (1999 Film) | |
| Win(k)some Widow (1914 Film), Win, Lose or Draw (1925 Film) |
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