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HOW TO DEAL
by Peter Sobczynski

July 18, 2003

(Out of 4 stars)

FILM CREDITS: Written by Neena Beber. Directed by Claire Kilner. Starring Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Alexandra Holden and Trent Ford. PG-13

Of all of the American teen princesses out there today currently dividing their time between forming multi-national corporations and posing for Vanity Fair covers (before reading the smugly condescending article inside, I assume), my favorite has to be Mandy Moore-and not for the reasons one might assume. She is cute as a button, of course, she can actually sing (of all of the tweeners out there, she strikes me as the only one who could actually go into a studio with only two guitars, bass and drums and comes out with an album worth listening too) and anyone who has the wit and taste to record covers of XTC is okay by me.

However, the reason why I would give her the nod over the sea of Avrils and Hilarys is that unlike the majority of her brethren, there is a simple sincerity about her that is utterly appealing. She comes off not as a micromanaged Barbie doll but as a real person and when it comes to making the transition from MTV to the big screen, making such an impression is crucial if we are to have any sympathy for the character she is supposed to play. Last year, for example, she starred in the teensploitation melodrama "A Walk to Remember", in which she played a preacher’s daughter who falls in love with the school’s bad boy even has she is dying of cancer or sharkbite or some other tragic thing. It was a pretty awful movie (one of those tearjerkers where the poor heroine gets prettier as she gets sicker) but one that was almost impossible to make fun of (and believe me, I tried) because it was so good-natured and sincere and a lot of that came from Moore’s sweet, straightforward performance. If you doubt me, try imagining the same film with someone like Britney Spears or Typhoid Aguilera in the lead and see what you come up with, besides the irresistible notion of the first small-town preacher’s daughter with a Brazilian bikini wax.

I mention all of this not to have an excuse to write semi-profound things about disposable popular culture (for that, I bow, as I so often do, to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his philosophical treatise on Shakira) but in order to explain why I found myself, flying against all common sense, more or less enjoying "How to Deal", Moore’s latest teen comedy-drama. It isn’t a perfect movie by any standards but it is better than it has any right to be and a lot of that is due to Moore’s winning performance. Watching her, it is clear that she wasn’t cast solely because of her pop-chart popularity but because she actually has the goods to make it as an actress. In fact, if she wanted to, she could quit her day job and have a more-than-credible shot at making it as an actress.

In "How to Deal", Moore plays Halley, a high-schooler who is beginning her junior year of high school with more than her share of personal complications. Her parents (Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney) have just finalized their divorce and while Mom is bitterly tending to her garden, Dad (a goofy radio host) is preparing to marry a younger bimbo (announcing it on the air before telling his family). Her sister(Alexandra Holden), meanwhile, is also planning her wedding to a guy (Mackenzie Astin) whom she doesn’t really seem to be in love with. Because of these examples, Halley declares herself to be thoroughly put off by the entire concept of romance and not even the sight of best pal Ashley (Mary Catherine Garrison) excitedly snogging with her new boyfriend is enough to inspire her otherwise.

Over the course of the school year chronicled in the film, a lot of events occur that force Halley to reexamine her life. Some of them are predictable enough (Ashley finds herself pregnant) and some are less so (such as an event that immensely complicates the pregnancy). Many of them are inspired by the presence of Macon (Trent Ford), the hunky young slacker who Halley becomes friends with, only to discover that the line between friendship and romance is a thin one indeed. In addition, she also finds herself dealing with the new relationships of her parents (Mom finds happiness with a goofy Civil War reenactor played by Dylan Baker) and the strange twists that the wedding plans wind up taking.

This is a lot of plot-and occasionally darker than one might expect-for a film essentially conceived as summer movie fare (the screenplay is based on two teen novels from writer Sarah Dessen, which may explain some of the overload) but that is one of the small pleasures to be had. It seems impossible to remember nowadays. when seemingly all teen movies feature sexually precocious twerps engaging in behavior that would have caused movie theaters to be raided 35 years ago, but there was a time when teen movies recognized that not everything was fun and games and that kids spent a lot of time grappling with emotions that they didn’t quite understand and despairing that they never would.

This was the approach that John Hughes took in his early films such as "16 Candles" and "The Breakfast Club" and it is the approach that director Clare Kilner achieves here as well. Halley, for example, comes off as a real girl with real problems who doesn’t always make the right choices-there are several times during the film when she abandons common sense and comes close to getting into serious trouble-and the film even has the temerity to suggest that she may not actually have all the answers to her problems at this time. The screenwriter, Neena Beber, used to be a writer for the great MTV show "Daria" and her screenplay here retains a lot of the wit and common sense that made that program so distinctive.

Although it is a little difficult at first to fully believe the cheerful Moore as a disillusioned cynic, she quickly settles into the role and gives the kind of performance that made Molly Ringwald a star in those early Hughes films. Smartly, Kilner has surrounded Moore with a stronger cast that you might expect from a film lie this and they turn in strong work as well-Gallagher is funny as the man-child father and Janney has a couple of great scenes in which she vents her frustrations on a video camera and the weeds in her garden. The only weak link is Trent Ford as the boyfriend. Sure, he is superficially handsome in a non-threatening way but there is absolutely nothing else about him or his character to suggest that he is anything other than a mimbo who will be quickly forgotten-both on-screen by Halley and off-screen by the girls that he is being marketed towards.

"How to Deal" isn’t perfect-I could have lived without the pot-smoking granny and one wonderful scene (in which Halley accidentally trips a smoke alarm while sneaking off from a hideous dinner party) is ruined by a crude capper seemingly included only to get a cheap laugh in the trailer-but I was surprised to find it working as well as it did. After a summer filled with robots, explosions, car crashes, fart jokes and lazy-eyed skanks battling Demi Moore, here is a simple, unassuming film that actually dares to include the human element into the mix. I am fairly certain that no one over the age of 18 would even contemplate going to see "How to Deal" (unless they are chaperoning) but I am willing to bet that if they do, they will find themselves pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.