Released: January 23, 2004
Directed by: Robert Luketic
Written by: Victor Levin
Starring: Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace & Josh Duhamel
Plot: A small town girl wins a contest for a date with a celebrity. When the movie star starts falling for her, it causes chaos in the life of the girl's best friend, who is also in love with her.
IMDb: 5.6/10Rotten Tomatoes: 53/100
My Score: 2.5
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
The 2004 romantic comedy Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! is a
decent, if not great, entry into the genre. Rosalee (Kate Bosworth), a PigglyWiggly cashier from Frazier’s Bottom, WV, wins a charity-sponsored contest for
a date with movie star heartthrob Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel). After Hamilton
becomes smitten with her, he follows Rosie back home, throwing a monkey wrench
in the plans of Pete (Topher Grace), her best friend and co-worker, to tell her
that he loves her. Grace is by far the best thing about this movie. Think of
his character Eric Forman from That 70’s Show twenty years in the future but
only four years older and you’ll understand who the slightly awkward and geeky but very lovable Pete Monash is. He and Kathryn Hahn’s bartender
Angelica (who is smitten with Pete the way Pete is smitten with Rosie) have the best scene in the movie. These two characters are the only ones with any real depth to them. The rest of the cast of familiar faces are all flat by comparison.
Gary Cole is Rosie’s dad, doing his best but is completely lost and out of his
depth. Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes are Hamilton’s manager and agent, respectively, both named Richard Levy. These two provide comic relief in their scenes but are so one dimensional that they are referred to as The Driven and The Shameless in the credits. The monikers pretty much sum up the characters. Even Rosie’s other best friend Cathy (the cute-as-a-button Ginnifer Goodwin) seems to only be around to spout soft-core fantasies about Tad Hamilton. Speaking of Hamilton himself, he is a one trick pony as the egotistical movie star, pretty much unrepentant even in the end. The most disappointing depth-deprived character is probably Rosalee herself. Sure she ends up with the right guy in the end but her character didn’t need to go through any journey or change in any way to reach her destination. There a handful of other familiar faces who pop up, as well. Stephen Tobolowsky is Pete’s boss in an early scene, a pre-Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer is in a few scenes as another co-worker and Amy Smart acts opposite Duhamel in a scene from a movie within the movie. That's not to mention Jordana Brewster and Paris Hilton whose scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. There are some pretty funny lines (“Guard your carnal treasure!”)
but this one is pretty much light fluff with Grace really doing the only heavy
lifting. This is director Robert Luketic’s second film, having previously
directed Legally Blonde starring Reese Witherspoon. He would go to on helm Monster-in-Law starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda, 21 starring Bosworth, Jim Sturgess, and Kevin Spacey, The UglyTruth starring Kathrine Heigl and Gerard Butler, and The Killers, starring Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! was nominated for eight Teen Choice Awards in
2004 but failed to win any.
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