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How to Deal

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Neena Beber
Sarah Dessen (novels Someone Like You and That Summer)
Directed by: Clare Kilner
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 18, 2003
DVD: December 9, 2003
Running Time: 109 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, drug material, language and some thematic elements
Starring Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, Alexandra Holden, Peter Gallagher, Trent Ford, Dylan Baker, Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison, and Connie Ray
The story of 17-year-old Halley Martin (Moore), who has been convinced by the outrageous relationships around her that the whole concept of true love is vastly overrated. (New Line Cinema)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Janice Beard: 45 Words Per Minute The Wedding Date
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Offical Mandy Moore Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Moore makes Halley's awakening organic and touching. In an age when most teenagers are up to their eyeballs in postmodern consumer glitz, her movies seem radical not just in their retro squareness but in their unfashionable embrace of faith over ironic flippancy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Ellen Fox
This is a movie whose title promises to show teenage viewers how to cope with the messed-up, grown-up world they are entering, not how to make it perfect -- or even how to make sense of it.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
There's pleasure to be had in a film that suggests teen life can be hard without necessarily being tragic.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
There's a surprising intelligence and gravity working beneath its bubbly surface, informed by an unusual degree of empathy for its adolescent audience and a rare willingness to confront the darker regions of youth experience.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Janney's role is smaller than Moore's, but it's hardly insignificant. Moore has youth on her side, and youth is timelessly appealing. But Janney is the bigger, more memorable presence, and she's much more fun to watch.
Read Full Review >Premiere Alexis Mersel
The handful of comic moments will serve up a few good laughs.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Works up some genuine emotion offset by occasional humor and creates individuals of a certain degree of complexity, but the film is glazed over with an aura of artificiality.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Laura Sinagra
As Mom, Allison Janney easily dominates every scene she graces, as does Morning Zoo jock papa Peter Gallagher.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
This movie is the worst episode of ''Gilmore Girls'' ever.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
I watched the movie with interest, yes, but not emotional involvement, and my appreciation of Moore was based more on her essence than on her character.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
Competently if unremarkably directed by Englishwoman Clare Kilner, should prove compelling enough to Moore's huge legion of fans.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
It’s just too much drama for one modest film to service adequately. In an effort to cram it all in, scenes abruptly jump from one to the next with nary a smooth transition in sight, relationships evolve far too quickly, and certain subplots drop out of the mix only to resurface, jarringly, much later.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The pop diva goes down with the bubbles in this hopelessly shallow soap opera.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
The sad truth is that TV series like "Dawson's Creek" do a better job with precocious teen dialogue.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Director Claire Kilner and screenwriter Neena Beber don't walk the tightrope between comedy and drama skillfully enough to make either aspect work as well as it should.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
A thoughtful but uneven teen picture, also has too much going on.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Mostly honest in its portrayal of teen sexuality -- it exists, whether we like it or not -- but also offers up the troubling notion of teen pregnancy as romantic and magical.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Kilner and crew cough up a mish-mash of contrasting tones and tempos and wind up a rather odd, misshapen curiosity that wavers into too many styles to avoid a slow death by overkill.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
How much can one girl grapple with over the course of an hour and a half?
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
A bland romance that suffers from choppy development, dramatic overload and dearth of personality.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Moore and Ford rise above the hackneyed story, infusing the proceedings with their own chemistry and appeal. If only the adults responsible for this film could learn how to deal.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Unlike pop rival Britney Spears, Moore does project star quality on the screen, but she gives Halley an edge of nastiness that makes her harder to empathize with than she should be.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) James Adams
Just the umpteenth replay of the girl-meets-boy/boy-loses-girl/boy-gets-girl story.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Another soundtrack-driven, disposable, not entirely objectionable teen movie.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Embodies all that's wrong with the sellout culture of Hollywood.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
To call this scattered and cliché-ridden film less-than-cohesive would be generous, and Moore lacks the ability to imbue hackneyed dialogue with resonance.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
A bad, unimaginative story posing pretentiously as the very opposite.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Woutielion gave it a3:
This movie sucked. It wennt from one scene to another and Malcom isn't even an believable actor. there is no real story line. It goes from all different topics. Just stuck to one topic and then show the character's emotions.
Taea gave it a10:
It was great. I cant stop watching it. Ive probably seen it 5o yimes. It's a great story the reviews arae a total lie.
La Shanay F. gave it a 10:
I loved it! It reminds me of me and my boyfriend. Mandy Moore is my role model.
Lindz R. gave it a 10:
LOVED IT.
Kortney J. gave it a 10:
This is such a good movie!It is funny and it as drama. I love this movie and I think Mandy Moore is nothing but great! If you do not like this movie you are crazy!
E. R. gave it a 10:
This was a totaly cool movi, i think that this movi had something to say,but the end is like an open one,you don“t know what will become from the boy and girl -will they stay togther or not,but in other way,it tells a beutiful story of true love ,what everyone of as is searching for...
Spriggangirl gave it a 0:
This is not your everyday life to be a teenager one of these days.I'm sorry to say this,but,it sucks and they should make it how to fight instead of how to deal.You got that?
