Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004)

Directed by: Robert Luketic | 95 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Kate Bosworth, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kathryn Hahn, Sean Hayes, Gary Cole, Amy Smart, Sam Pancake, Octavia Spencer

Self-righteous movie star Tad Hamilton can’t even tell his maids apart out of disinterest. In a contest devised by his managers, uncomplicated village girl Rosalee wins a date with this hero. Her best friend Pete couldn’t get any worse; he’s been in love with Rosalee for years but never had the balls to say it. Just when he is finally ready, this dream date comes in between!

And it gets even worse: Tad encounters nothing but empty opportunistic people in Hollywood in his life and falls head over heels for the charms and purity of the naive carefree Rosalee. He visits her after the date in her native village. Pete holds his breath, convinced that Tad just wants to get Rosalee into bed.

But then comes the original twist of the film: Tad Hamilton seriously wants to make amends for Rosalee and turns out not to be the dick of a guy he seems. Full of good intentions, he wins Rosalee for himself. Pete, on the other hand, becomes more and more jealous and gives up more and more, so that at some point he loses the viewer’s sympathy: you don’t care anymore if Tad runs off with Rosalee, maybe she is indeed better off this way .

Until a few minutes before the end, it is indeed suggested that this film does not have a typical happy ending and that just like in real life, the celebrities run off with the most beautiful girls while simple well-meaning guys are left disappointed. But it’s a romantic comedy, so just when the film seems to be over, a happy ending has to be glued to it quickly. That comes artificially out of the blue, because the clichés of the romcom were just as nice bypassed in the preceding.

And so we are dragged headlong back into the world of romantic comedy, a world in which the Chantal Janzens of this world don’t run off with the Johnny de Mol jr’s at all, but with ordinary sweet boys who only have eyes for their inwardly. For example, ‘Win A Date With Tad Hamilton’ is ultimately wickedly cute, where there seemed to be more to it. Perhaps a pitch-black director like Todd Solonz should take a closer look at this genre, very curious what he would have made of this whole. No, for really good romantic comedies we still have to turn to Brits like Richard Curtis.

Still, ‘Tad Hamilton’ is a pleasant feel-good movie that has the same cozy feeling as an episode of the TV series “Friends”. With a bit of good marketing, this movie can reach a decent audience despite the lack of famous names. Josh Duhamel (from the TV series “Las Vegas”) also makes Tad Hamilton a really nice role, on the one hand clumsy and superficial but on the other hand also perfect and full of good intentions.

And Kate Bosworth deserves a special mention. She is perfectly cast as the adorable dream girl. You must have a heart of stone not to melt at her sight. And then the male viewer thinks to herself. Of course she plays a role here and she probably isn’t that nice in real life. That can’t be an actress who plays in the hard American film world, can it? However, some research on the internet shows that Kate does volunteer work for disabled children in her spare time. That makes you think… Could the perfect girl with the good heart really exist?…