Sorry, this movie sucks

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Dreadfully Boring

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

How to Deal would work so much better as a teen film refusing to conform to cookie-cutter ideology if it didn't always seem like it was contradicting what it originally set out to do. Whether this issue was brought on by Sarah Dessen, the author of That Summer and Someone Like You, which the film is based off of or screenwriter Neena Beber is up to debate, but for whatever reason, How to Deal feels like a rebel being proved wrong, foolish, and worthless and I doubt that's how it was originally conceived.The story revolves around seventeen year old Halley Martin (Mandy Moore), who becomes disillusioned with the concept of love because of how it appears in her own life. Her mother is going through a rocky time after divorcing Halley's dad, a senseless manchild of a radio-jockey and her sister's forthcoming marriage with another man that seems to be made up of nothing but fighting and bickering. So, because of these two things, Halley simply doesn't believe in love anymore and goes on with her life with that mindset.This, right here, should be the plot of How to Deal, but strangely, Beber (or Dessen, perhaps) decides to throw the film for a loop and have Halley be the subject of a love story with the geeky hunk Macon (Trent Ford). This is where How to Deal seems to be contradicting itself. The film should be revolving around Halley's life rejecting love, perhaps embracing hobbies, becoming more artistic and sociable in her life and at school, or even just being more comfortable around guys with the conflict potentially being rejecting her family and mistaking her family's love for ingenuous behavior if something were to go wrong in her life.Instead, the film brings up a romance, which feels offputting because it gives the message to young teens who maybe have questions about love the impression that if they think real love doesn't exist they are wrong and foolish because it does. How to Deal plays like "love propaganda," in the sense that its goal appears to be convincing a segment of the population who have rejected romantic notions and the idea that love makes people blind to reality (usually hard-hearted realists or mature pessimists) see the stupidity of their ways and rethink their initial thoughts.Early on, when the film is still trying to show us that Halley may be on to something with her ideology before pulling a complete three-sixty with the story, we get a glimpse at Halley with her close friend watching Halley's sister argue with her ex. Halley makes my aforementioned statement about love making people blind to reality by showing that, while they fight and argue, they will kiss and make up in a contrived way in just a few minutes. Such a thing unfolds. Right there, the film has just proved Halley's point by saying that love makes people ignore or lessen the bad in life because they are so in awe with the person they are with. However, just a few scenes later, Halley is seen falling for Macon in a way just as contrived as the events we just saw unfold.Because of this, little additional features about How to Deal can be admired, with the exception of the cast's uniformly solid performances in making their characters at least somewhat believable in their personalities. Not every person in high school is like the cast of American Pie and How to Deal tries (if stumbling in the process) to show this segment in a way that doesn't appear condescending. Mandy Moore seems to be born to play the role of a rebellious teen girl, questioning conventions within society and conformity due to a heavily-praised idea. It isn't her fault that the potential impact of her character is cheapened by a screenplay that has an abrupt change in its message halfway through the film.Another compliment, as back-handed as it sounds, is that How to Deal is never boring despite what I find to be a glaring inconsistency with its story and message. Many poorly-done romantic comedies become tired early on and very repetitive, but the characters and their actors decide to be upbeat about their roles and all seem committed to the material. Perhaps they saw something I'm missing. This is an entry in the new genre I'll call "love propaganda" and I'm hoping another film won't fall into that category.Starring: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, and Trent Ford. Directed by: Clare Kilner.

One of my friends had once rented this movie but I refused to watch it. I saw it and thought it was another cheesy teen love movie. and then not a dew days ago It came on TV and I happen to start watching it( right in the middle) with out knowing what I was watching. I loved it. There is nothing dishonest about this movie. The girl Halley is forced to face what a lot of teens are. But unlike some other Hollywood movie, Its not made cheesy or over dramatized. It is real. The truth. It wasn't a shocking hard movie about a girl who gets all the bad cards in life but it was a movie about things that happen everyday in people's lives that might not be so pleasant. I really liked the Character of Macon. He was funny and seemed to be unlike the person he looked like on the cover. So If you haven't seen it. Its not a cheesy teen romance movie. Its a good movie to watch and love.

I would highly recommend How To Deal. Combining Sarah Dessen's two brilliant novels, (Someone Like You and That Summer) Mandy Moore and Trent Ford as Haley Martin and Macon Forrester deliver a wonderful, creative, and believable story. The plot incorporates the novels together beautifully,without venturing drastically from the books. It is very rare to find a movie that can live up to it's book and especially one that is made from two but How To Deal does this amazingly well. It is refreshing to see such real teenage problems put onto screen without clichéd humor or ridicule's plots. The acting in this movie was decent at the very least, Nina Foch provides comic humor as the grandmother and Mandy Moore plays a perfect Haley. As far as Mandy Moore is concerned this is diffenatley one of her better films.

Mandy Moore stars in two of my all-time favorite movies, "Chasing Liberty" and this movie, "How to Deal". Based on two popular novels by my favorite author, Sarah Dessen, this movie deals with the life of cynical Halley (Moore), who doesn't believe in true love. Now, I'm not to say this is a romantic comedy, more of a romantic comedy-drama. I like dramatic films, such as this one, "Dead Poets Society", and "Chasing Liberty", but will open up to some comedies, such as "Uptown Girls" and "13 Going on 30". I'm kind of an open-ended mind. I give this movie a ten out of ten because of the great acting, all-star cast, and cute Trent Ford as a newcomer. They modified some details of the books, but I don't care. It's still one of my fave movies.