It’s hard to get that weepy-laugh sensation from a romantic comedy if the leads are avaricious creeps with nothing but career agendas in mind. That’s how this sassy-romp wanna-be rides for the first two acts, and though it does eventually begin to endear, in the end it forfeits everything with an angry and humorless tell-all rendition of the song "You’re So Vain."

Andie (Kate Hudson) is the "How To" columnist at a Cosmo-like magazine. For her current assignment (a favor to a friend recently spurned) she has to meet a guy, have him fall in love with her and then make him dump her, all within 10 days. Her victim, Benjamin (Matthew McConaughey), is a self-assured ad exec who has bet (the prize is landing a mega account) that he can keep a relationship going for more than 10 days. Hudson and McConaughey do justice to their caricatures, and there’s not much chemistry — not that director Donald Petrie seems to require any. He’s content with "a crack-enhanced Kathie Lee Gifford" who pet-names Benjamin’s penis "Princess Sophia." Benjamin can’t get it up, and neither can the film. (114 minutes)