Andie & Ben From How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days Would Not Last

Although How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days came out in 2003, the internet has not taken a day off from obsessing over it. Andie’s iconic yellow dress has made at least one appearance at every prom. Her rendition of “You’re So Vain” became a trending TikTok sound that I fear some younger Gen Zers may know better than the original. Ben and Andie have been labeled as the pinnacle of chemistry from viewers yearning to believe in true love. But as the movie’s stars would say, I call BS. I call BS on the whole thing.

Let me be clear: It’s not the movie itself I take issue with. In fact, I think it’s a fantastic film that has just about everything — Matthew McConaughey shirtless, a pseudo fake-dating trope, Matthew McConaughey’s dimples, etcetera. But when I scroll through TikTok seeing fan edits that say this couple is “the reason my standards are so high,” I can’t help but speak my truth.

Andie Anderson and Ben Barry may be the hottest duo ever to grace our screens, but the characters do not know each other. Like, at all. Call me old-fashioned, but in my book, knowing the other person should be a main requirement for being in love. Instead, they are simply two people who get turned on by competition and care more about their careers than general human decency.

As you may recall, these two overly confident cookies met under the most unique of circumstances. Ben wanted to prove to his colleagues that he understood women, so he bet that he could make any random one fall in love with him. Andie wanted to show her magazine editor that she understood men, so she set out to be as insufferable as possible, to prove she knew what drove them away. They both were the subject of each other’s challenge, and they both had 10 days.

From the instant they met, the communication was off to a concerning start. Their initial conversation consisted of one-word questions and answers, along the lines of “Single? Yes,” and “Hungry? Starving.” That was enough information for Andie to willingly ride on Ben’s motorcycle to a restaurant where they ate seafood with checkered bibs on. I’ll admit, that part was cute. But even so, they continued to talk in riddles to each other, serving 100% sultriness with 0% clarity.

While Andie lured Ben in by being her real, charming self, she flipped the switch on their second date by acting clingy and emotional, embodying every stereotype of single, desperate women that I would argue are completely untrue. The shift was so drastic that Ben actually labeled it the Good Andie and the Evil Andie.

As Andie’s antics reached wild heights (we don’t even have time to talk about Princess Sophia), Ben stuck it out and continued the charade in an effort to win his work bet — but not without almost throwing in the towel and tossing many jabs Evil Andie’s way, including one of my favorites: “Why would I need to hit on another woman? You’ve got more than enough personalities to keep me completely occupied!”

It’s not love they found, but just a worthy competitor.

Let’s regroup here for a moment. Andie is acting like a Gemini on steroids while Ben also puts on a front, pretending to accept Andie’s red flags while secretly using her to get ahead at work. The Good Andie comes out only for two of the 10 days they know each other — their first date and the trip to Staten Island, where she randomly decides to act normal again in front of his family.

This leaves us with eight days of faking it and two semi-normal dates. Is that really enough to fall in love? Can anyone really decipher another person’s true self if they are forced to decode a sea of mixed signals? Personally, I think not. Let’s not ignore the fact that both of them chose to mess with someone’s feelings to further their careers. Maybe TikTok thinks this makes them a match made in heaven, but in my book, it only furthers the narrative that it’s not love they found, but just a worthy competitor.

There is one couple in this movie I would ride for, and that’s my king and queen Michelle and Mike. Michelle, played by Katherine Hahn, is Andie’s inspiration for her How To story. The movie opens with her heartbroken over Mike, who she supposedly drove away by being totally obsessed with and saying “I love you” a week into the relationship.

But at the end of the movie, Mike shows up at her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers, and the two ride off into the sunset. In their 20 seconds of screen time, I was sold on the pair, because, unlike Ben and Andie, they saw all parts of each other. They wore their hearts entirely on their sleeves, and they still wanted to be together. What’s more romantic than that?

Calling all TikTok editing geniuses: Can we please get some fan edits of Mike and Michelle? Set to a Taylor Swift song, preferably?