How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days provides an entry into what Frye might refer to as the fictional ethos of the comic romance. It is in the region of romance, in Frye's formulation (367), because it presents an idealized mise-en-scFne--the Manhattan of glamour jobs and the careerism of beautiful yuppies meant for each other but obliged to travel through a not-very-smooth course of true love. Meanwhile, and underneath it all, Ben has the emotional anchor of a supportive middle-class family, and Andie turns out to be much more vulnerable and decent inside than she thinks she is in the halls of New York publishing.

The film is fictional, under Frye's definition (365-6), because its characters fully inhabit their milieu, not being linked to any particular rhetorical resonance, still less an arguable social problem. It has a comic ethos because, consistent with Frye's views, the characters are operationalized in a particular setting that has its own logic, i.e., the fancy (idealized) New York world of high-powered advertising and high-powered magazine publishing. And of course the action is resolved sa

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e side of his nature which he overlooks; on that account alone does he make us laugh. . . . It is not uncommon for a comic character to condemn in general terms a certain line of conduct and immediately afterwards afford an example of it himself. . . . What is the object of such contradictions except to help us to put our finger on the obliviousnss of the characters to their own actions? (Bergson 392). The line of action that develops and deepens the authentic mutual attraction between Andie and Ben in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is incited by the poker game. Andie is on her way home from pushing cucumber sandwiches on the poker night, congratulating herself on getting dumped, when Ben catches up with her and suggests that they go to couples therapy. Thinking fast, Andie enlists her colleague Michelle in a faux role-playing exercise, and during their $300-an-hour "therapy" session Michelle engineers Ben into inviting Andie to a weekend at the home of his parents on Staten Island. It is during that weekend that Andie falls in love with Ben's family (who are fond of playing a version of liar's poker that they call "bullshit") and in fact realizes that she is falling in love with Ben as well; the feeling is mutual. Whether they con
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Approximate Word count = 2164
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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