MOVIE REVIEW: 90 minutes with Tad Hamilton
The first thing I should point out is that “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” doesn’t come out until Jan. 23. A sneak preview I caught in Salt Lake City gives me the rare opportunity to get a review done before the film has already been out for a week or two.
In short, “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” was better than I thought it would be. It is the fairly enjoyable story of a love triangle between a West Virginia grocery-store clerk (Kate Bosworth, “Blue Crush” surfer-girl), the movie star she has a crush on (Josh Duhamel, generic hunk-guy) and her long-time “best friend” (Topher Grace, scrawny “That ’70s Show” guy), who has for years hidden his true feelings for her. Bosworth wins a national contest that grants her a date with movie star Tad Hamilton, and when Hamilton actually finds himself interested in her, the action begins.
That’s actually my biggest gripe with the film: It takes too long for the action to begin. The first half of the film drags far too much; the audience knows what is going to happen, and the wait for the plot to get interesting becomes laborious. There are also a number of “creep-out” moments: Awkward moments in the film that are meant to get laughs but just leave you squirming.
Once you get past all that, the movie is actually pretty fun. There is nothing revolutionary about the plot, but the characters are likeable enough to keep your attention. Obviously, you are meant to root for the “best friend” to win Bosworth over, but the Duhamel’s movie star character has enough of a human side that he does merit sympathy.
Fortunately, Duhamel doesn’t merit so much sympathy that “Tad Hamilton” falls prey to the “Reality Bites” factor, where the audience finds the “wrong” guy (Ben Stiller) much more appealing than the “right” guy (Ethan Hawke). Duhamel eventually manages to disqualify himself, but it actually takes awhile for Topher Grace’s character to convince the audience that he’s the “right” guy. Once he does, the planets align like they’re supposed to, and the story draws up to a happy close through a logistical twist at the end that comes as a healthy surprise.
What does all of this mean? It means I’ve written a review with a record number of words in quotation marks. It also means “Tad Hamilton” is a decent date movie. I’m always an advocate of films that portray the fascinating lifestyle of grocery employees, and this film should help balance out the decided lack of West Virginia films currently filling the theaters. But until “Tad Hamilton” comes out, just keep going to see “Return of the King.” Gollum still needs you, people.
Joshua Terry is a graduate student in the American studies program who once paid to watch “Weekend at Bernie’s II.” He can be contacted at jterry@english.usu.edu.