A teenager (Moore), disillusioned by too many examples of love gone wrong, refuses to believe that true love exists. Then this new guy (Ford) comes along...A teenager (Moore), disillusioned by too many examples of love gone wrong, refuses to believe that true love exists. Then this new guy (Ford) comes along...A teenager (Moore), disillusioned by too many examples of love gone wrong, refuses to believe that true love exists. Then this new guy (Ford) comes along...
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe plot is a combination of the Sarah Dessen novels "Someone like You" and "That Summer." The first novel is the story of Halley helping Scarlett through the results of her interaction with Michael. The second novel is the story of Haven, whose parents have broken up and whose sister is planning a wedding. The stories were combined, with Dessen's approval, by reassigning Haven's family to Halley.
- GoofsWhen Scarlett goes over to Halley's house to discuss symptoms she is eating grapefruit. After complaining that Halley's 'perfume' smells she puts the plate of grapefruit to her right. But in the overhead shot of her and Halley we see that the grapefruit is still on the pillow in her lap.
- Crazy creditsIn what is probably a typo, "American Human Association monitored the animal action", according to the credits. The logo next to the words does spell "Humane" properly.
- SoundtracksBilly S.
Written by James Robertson and Skye Sweetnam
Performed by Skye Sweetnam
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Featured review
Accept it on its own terms and don't expect "American Beauty"
The bright primary colors in which the plot, dialog and characters of this movie are cast gives it away early on: this is a cross between a soap opera and a sitcom, made purely to entertain. As such, it's actually pretty good.
Mandy Moore is adorable. She seems to be learning how to act as she goes along, but isn't that how most of them did it? Give her a few more years and some better scripts to work with and she could be a major star.
The real problem is that for the movie's target audience of middle-class suburban white teenagers it's positively overflowing with groaners -- embarrassing "banter" between the kids, cartoonish characters (idiotic philandering husbands, evil boy-stealing girlfriends), and a preposterous storyline. My own teenage daughter and her friends thought How to Deal was, and I quote, "stupid." But for us middle-aged parents nostalgic for a time in their lives they've almost completely forgotten, it really isn't that bad. Give it a chance.
Mandy Moore is adorable. She seems to be learning how to act as she goes along, but isn't that how most of them did it? Give her a few more years and some better scripts to work with and she could be a major star.
The real problem is that for the movie's target audience of middle-class suburban white teenagers it's positively overflowing with groaners -- embarrassing "banter" between the kids, cartoonish characters (idiotic philandering husbands, evil boy-stealing girlfriends), and a preposterous storyline. My own teenage daughter and her friends thought How to Deal was, and I quote, "stupid." But for us middle-aged parents nostalgic for a time in their lives they've almost completely forgotten, it really isn't that bad. Give it a chance.
helpful•168
- thefan-2
- Feb 14, 2004
- How long is How to Deal?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $16,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $14,195,227
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,800,000
- Jul 20, 2003
- Gross worldwide
- $14,390,329
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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