DVD Review: How to Deal

After seeing Mandy Moore in this summer's sleeper flop Saved!, I was inspired to go to NetFlix and rent both of her other films. She was radiant in A Walk to Remember as a girl preserving her innocence at a modern high school. She was hilarious as the big baddie in Saved! even if the rest of American did not come out to see it. So how would she do in this one?



HOW TO DEAL is the story of Halley Martin, the teenaged daughter of two adults who have just divorced and the sister of a 20-something who is about to marry a man she sometimes appears to hate. Halley has decided that all men are scum, and that love is a myth embraced by people looking to fill the emptyness in their lives. Her cynicism is further deepened when her best friend's boyfriend dies suddenly on the soccer field, proving to her that love is just way to open yourself up for pain when you are left whether due to divorce or death. Into this swamp of cynicism dives "Macon" a non-traditional boy with apparently no idea of how to comb his hair out of his eyes. He does all he can to break through her emotional walls and show her that love can be a wonderful thing.



HOW TO DEAL is a sweet movie and one worth seeing, though it may be a bit depressing to watch at the wrong moments. So many things go wrong in front of Halley's eyes and she has to overcome so much to find any inkling of love, that some may find it hard to get through. But ultimately, the good guys all win, and the bad guys... well... there really are no bad guys. Just clueless guys who need to be taught the truth by a stoned grandmother. No, seriously. And Mandy Moore again proves that she is perhaps a better movie star than she is a singer. She brings a strong presence and heart to the part, and holds our attention even though she spends much of the movie as little more than a bystander to what is happening to everyone else. This is a woman whose career will be worth watching, so long as she can avoid the traps that stars like Brittany Spears have fallen into. Stay on the straight and narrow, Ms. Moore, and you may well be the next big thing of your generation.