50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (2004)

Brilliant and touching

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

How To Lose Your Lover is a romantic comedy that stars Paul Schneider, Tori Spelling,Poppy Montgomery and Jennifer Westfeldt. The story is about a biographer that decides to leave Los Angeles and restart his life on the East coast who suddenly meets the woman of his dreams before leaving.It is the feature debut of writer,producer and director Jordan Hawley.Owen,played by Schneider,wants to be a serious writer.He wants to move from Los Angeles since the only work he can get is co-writing trashy autobiographies for people who'd prefer he omit the unseemly truth.He thinks L.A. is keeping him from achieving his romantic and professional goals.Unfortunately,he can't bring himself to leave. After an earthquake,Owen's manipulative, unfaithful ex-girlfriend to tell him she wants nothing more to do with him.This inspire him to finally decides to get out of town. He arranges to write a biography for a Princeton physicist and then he tells all his friends and acquaintances the brutal truth so that he has every reason to leave L.A. He admits to Stephanie,played by Tori Spelling, that his other house mate, Allison,portrayed by the beauteous Poppy Montgomery, has always found her attractive, but he neglected to tell the former this because he doesn't like her. But he can't bring himself to say anything unpleasant to his promiscuous bisexual best friend, Allison. Owen is at the airport, ready to board his flight, when he runs into Val,played by Jennifer Westfeldt,who happens to be an attractive acquaintance of his ex. She's seeing off her former boyfriend and invites him to have coffee which caused him to miss his flight. There's an immediate attraction. But still,he is determined to leave town especially now that no one wants him around, but he has to take a few days to prove to himself that things would never work out with Val.Will Owen and Val end up together? The romantic comedy had its moments but it was boring most of the time.There was a feeling that some instances were contrived.Also,the most jokes weren't really that funny and the story wasn't even engaging as it was far from being well-written and well-developed. What's worse is that the ending came out of nowhere. Although I have a feeling that the movie tried to be an uncommon romcom,it unfortunately made the story somewhat preposterous and insult to the viewer's intelligence. Honestly,I felt that the romance between Owen and Val served as a misdirection as the viewer got engaged with the development of their relationship and yet it tries to surprise him at what going to happen in the end.And the worse did happen.At the conclusion of the movie, they don't it end up together due to some preposterous reason.When a writer uses misdirection instead of the plot device,then the viewer definitely feels cheated. What makes up for the poorly conceived story is the performances of the actors and actresses particularly Paul Schneider and Jennifer Westfeldt.I think that they did their best to make sure that the movie was still entertaining and far from being terrible.I still managed to give this a 7 out of 10 rating because of it.

I've had this movie on my radar for awhile, because it has Jennifer Westfeldt in it and I'm a huge fan of hers and want to make sure I see everything she's ever done (I know, I'm a pathetic groupie). Somewhat surprisingly, she's actually not the best thing about this film, and I think she's a little wasted in it (like they told her not to overdo it and she's a little muted). But Paul Schneider is terrific, and overall it's a really funny, charming movie. It's definitely low budget, which is not a problem at all for me, because the writing is sharp and the actors do a great job. I've always thought that independently-produced romantic comedies are always better than the Hollywood ones, because they're always funnier and more romantic. This film is more evidence for my theory. The idea of being totally honest to run someone off is reminiscent of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but the concept is used to better effect in this movie and doesn't feel nearly as stilted as it did in Kate Hudson's film. The movie doesn't go quite where you think it's going either (at least not where I thought it was going) which is a bonus, and it has great kissing, another bonus. Definitely worth watching if you like movies that are smart and a little offbeat.

I thought this was a very well-written, funny and interesting comedy about how people can both love and hate LA, while also finding love for themselves. It's true the movie does look low budget at times. But, the cast does such a fine job (Tori Spelling was even a pleasant surprise), and there is an honesty about Paul Schnedier's character. He starts off as a cynical, "I don't care about this town, or anyone in it" type of guy. But, he gradually grows to recognize what's important about LA is not his perception and bias, but the friends in his life, people he took for granted for far too long. The audience I saw it with at Tribeca really loved it. This film is worth checking out.

Oh boy. Another in a looooooong series of movies penned and directed by Hollywood types who want to stick it to Hollywood. Whoever told writers, "write what you know" should have added the qualifier, "only if it is entertaining." I can only wait for the doofus who put this lame hunk of junk together to produce a movie about reality TV.Now let us place blame where blame is due for this horrid waste of time.Paul Schneider doesn't seem to have a subtle bone in his body and instead of being funny, his antics are tiresome, bordering on the offensively unfunny.Jordan Hawley - wrote and directed this trash. I'm sure that if anyone besides myself had bothered to watch this, he'd be getting honorary Razzies for the rest of his life.