Mish-mash of styles and moods puts a damper on 'How to Deal'

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Friday, July 18, 2003

Mish-mash of styles and moods puts a damper on 'How to Deal'

By PAULA NECHAK
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

One of the first bits of youthful "wisdom" to emit from the voiceover introduction to "How To Deal" is, "Things happen and you just have to deal."

MOVIE REVIEW

HOW TO DEAL

DIRECTOR: Clare Kilner

CAST: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Trent Ford

RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, drug material, language, thematic elements

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8 Cinema, Everett Mall 3, Factoria, Gateway 8, Issaquah 9, Marysville Cinema 14, Monroe 12, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Renton Village, South Hill Mall, Valley Drive-in, Woodinville 12,

GRADE: C-

That goes tenfold for the poor audience stuck watching platinum-selling pop princess Mandy Moore's latest star vehicle. Moore garnered good reviews for "A Walk to Remember" but here she sulks through a story that's one big muddle of bad scripting and such arch mood swings the script needs an anti-depressant.

Moore plays Halley Martin, a 17-year-old who punitively pouts under the stress of her radio DJ dad Len's (Peter Gallagher) recent remarriage to a woman half his age; her mom, Lydia (Allison Janney), has torrential outbursts at the male gender after being divorced and her big sister Ashley's (Mary Catherine Garrison) impending marriage is to the most uptight guy on Earth.

It's enough to put a gal off of the idea of love. Why, even Halley's best friend, Scarlett (Alexandra Holden), has just fallen hard for a guy at school. What's a young woman surrounded by the detritus of love gone bad and the swelling silliness of new romance to do?

Enter Macon Forrester (Trent Ford), an iconoclastic bad boy with a sweet heart, bad hair and eyebrows that mesh Tom Cruise's uni with Jack Nicholson's demonic arches and who, despite being Halley's most comfortable relationship, offers more than friendship.

"I like you too much already to actually go out with you," Halley tells him. Macon replies, "Don't make it so complicated."

If only director Clare Kilner had heeded his advice! Kilner and crew cough up a mish-mash of contrasting tones and tempos and wind up a rather odd, misshapen curiosity that wavers into too many styles to avoid a slow death by overkill.

Moore seems sullen and emits far less gravity and potential than in "A Walk to Remember." It's most likely because she is surrounded by such formidable actors as veteran Nina Foch, who plays her pot-smoking grandma as well as the always extraordinary Janney. If she initially appears shrewish, she also gives Lydia enough dimension to let us see the transformation that occurs with the possibility of a second chance at love.