Posted: 01/19/2001

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

(2004)

by Hank Yuloff

Light-headed fun with no bad after effects.

In the past month, I have seen 21 Grams, Mystic River, House of Sand and Fog, Cold Mountain, Monster, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, Osama, and In America. I was beginning to be a little gun shy of going to the theater for fear of seeing more sorrow and pity and woe and death and grief.

My editor, Del Harvey, promised me that this one would be different. I am pleased to report that he was right. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton will never win an Oscar, let alone a nomination. It will not be on anyone’s top 10 list for 2004. But as teen flicks go, it was quite nice. Very view able. Yea, that ought to get me Television cover.

Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) is a Hollywood teen idol who’s image has become tarnished. His manager, Richard Levy, and agent, Richard Levy, think up the idea presented in the title as a way of polishing that image. The title of the movie relates to a 1960’s style contest where someone is chosen to have a date with the heartthrob of their dreams.

Kate Bosworth stars as Rosalee Futch, a West Virginia grocery clerk who enters and wins the contest and is whisked off to Hollywood for her date. She makes quite an impression and a week later is surprised to find Tad has come to her town to get to know her better. This is a wildly popular idea for everyone in the town except for her longtime friend Pete Monash (Topher Grace from TV’s That 70’s Show and Mona Lisa Smile) who has a not so secret crush on Futch. Thus is formed the typical movie triangle of two men pursuing the same woman’s attention.

The acting is pretty cookie cutter. Bosworth is cute but I think any number of actresses could have played the role. Her good girl image from Blue Crush obviously helped her win this role. Duhamel (TV’s Las Vegas), also, could have been replaced by any number of actors. He is adequate, but not always that believable. Grace appears to be playing a spin off of his TV That 70’s Show character Eric Forman. It is almost the same guy. The acting highlights come from the supporting cast. Ginnifer Goodwin (Mona Lisa Smile) is wonderful as Rosalee’s best friend Cathy. Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) and Sean Hayes (TV’s Will and Grace) are comically fun as the agent and manager who have the same name. Kathryn Hahn (TV’s Crossing Jordan) is also very good as the bartender who has a not so secret crush on Pete. Judging by the tattoos, he should have gone in that direction.

As a diversion, Win A Date With Tad Hamilton is completely worth seeing, though if you wait for cable it is probably a better idea. If your 11-15 year old daughters want to be dropped off to watch it while you are seeing more adult fare at the multiplex, it’s very safe for the younger ages.

Hank Yuloff is just now coming out of his “depressing movie” coma. Strong doses of Mel Brooks and Kevin Smith movies helped a lot.

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