En busca del hombre ideal

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our library, part of a set of three rom-com movies.

Meghan Markle is high powered Denver career woman Cass, by her own evaluation keeps picking the wrong type of guy. She doesn't want to remain single. She discovers a book, "The Dater's Handbook", in a coworker's desk, a young lady about to be married, and assumes the book helped her. So Cass sets out on her latest project, start dating the right kind of guy.

It is a lightweight rom-com, as these most often go she meets two guys about the same time, one a sort of goofy, fun-loving sort, the other a rather serious sort who likes to entertain at fancy restaurants and take his date to art galleries and classical string quartet concerts. But doesn't really know how to have fun.

So we, the audience, realize right away that Cass will be better off with the fun-loving guy, as does her mother, but will Cass ever realize it?

That is the movie, lightweight but entertaining, Markle is really good in her role, as well as the other cast members.

They made it so obviously which is the right guy for her, that she looks like an idiot for not just picking him early on.

Also, the whole movie is a false dilemma fallacy. Can't a girl have a guy who's dependable AND chivalrous AND fun?

The sister got on my nerves. Apparently, she's unhappy in her marriage, and is trying to get a vicarious do-over through her sister's love life. And she follows some lady's self-help book so religiously, boiling love down to a checklist or formula.

And finally, neither guy ever learns that the protagonist's been two-timing them.

It's a cute movie, Meghan is fun to watch. But the "boyfriend" always showing up at her workplace. Kinda creepy. I can't see her with either George or Robert. And who would think DEVNER is the right word to put on a product? No phone calls were made to check into that? Made me laugh. Loved the dogs!

Hallmark have proven many times that they are capable of making something watchable at least and the best of them are actually very good. Some of those being films with very unappealing premises but somehow managing to make something charming out of it. Also watched it as someone who has liked Kristoffer Polaha in a lot of other things. What did dampen my expectations was that the idea of the film did not sound appetising and because of not being a fan of Meghan Markle (here before she became one of the world's most hated people) as an actress.

'Dater's Handbook' didn't do it for me. It does nothing to make an unappetising premise more appealing, in fact what made it so unappealing on paper was exaggerated in the execution. And it certainly does nothing to change my mind on Markle, either as an actress or as a person. Is it a terrible film? No, and it has its redeeming merits. It just does so many things really badly, some of the things done badly didn't surprise me but there were also things that should have worked that has worked elsewhere but doesn't here in 'Dater's Handbook'.

Starting with the good things, Polaha is great. He is as usual subtly charismatic and has an easy going charm that makes his character likeable. Jonathan Scarfe also appeals, though his character is not as interesting.

The production values are attractive, Hallmark nearly always deliver on at least nice scenery (even if they are often not the real locations) and this is no exception. Some of the soundtrack is pleasant and the supporting cast do their best.

Markle however is awful, she has little personality at times that is evident in some wooden line delivery, over-compensates at other points with some very affected facial expressions and comes over as very self absorbed. That her character is so impossible to endear to badly unbalances the film and actually wrecks it, a character with no real redeeming qualities seeemingly and with too many exaggerated negative traits to count (shallow-ness and arrogance being the most frequent). She also has no chemistry with either Polaha or Scarfe (that with Scarfe is a non event).

Also found the story execution very unrealistic, ruined by not only finding it hard to buy what either male lead saw in her that was remotely attractive but also finding it even more difficult to believe how they didn't see through or know what she was up to when it was so obvious. Scarfe's character comes over as naive. Other than Polaha's, almost all the characters are one dimensional and not fleshed out, basically bland typical Hallmark cliches. It is also very predictable, it's an old premise executed conventionally and with nothing new sprinkled with too much of a manipulative streak (with how Markle's character treats everybody else) that is distasteful and overdone.

Dialogue is awkward with the comedy being contrived and the drama being too sentimental. The ending is far too neat and convenient, it was very obvious from the start what the final decision was and it is one that makes one go "why".

Overall, mediocre with an unbearable female lead character. See it for Polaha and Hallmark completest sake. 4/10.

Ugh.

Reliable & Dependable or Passionate & Spur of the Moment?

Meghan Markle in her last film before marrying Harry.

Kristoffer Polaha is charming as usual.

Cute but not much depth.