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38 out of 51 people found the following review useful: Great cast and insightful story, 3 February 2005 Author: ellenjessamy from United States
This movie is one that Angelenos and anyone who's had a love-hate relationship with the city they live in will completely understand. Paul Schneider delivers a great performance as a young man trying to start his life over. With the help of his friends and eccentric employer (Fred Willard) he goes on an amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking journey to fix the wrong in his life. First time director Jordan Hawley delivers with a clever script and characters that everyone can relate to. It's great to see Jennifer Westfeldt cast in this as well. Great ensemble cast makes this movie a funny and fresh romantic comedy.
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Great dialog and a nice love/hate movie about LA, 20 February 2006 Author: ccw1138 from United States
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.
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful: How to lose your interest...., 15 September 2006 Author: gradyharp from United States
Jordan Hawley wrote and directed this dark 'comedy' about the current state of love/hate relationships in Los Angeles (or inability to create same) with about as much panache as yesterday's onion rings. The storyline has been used so many times that the tread is off the tires.LA ghostwriter Owen (Paul Schneider) is a 'nice guy' who sustains an inability to form a satisfactory love relationship. Exasperated with his life style he decides to become a cad: that must be what women (and men) want. He reverses his nice guy tactic and begins telling everyone he encounters just how he feels - and that is usually negative! The only person who doesn't but into his change is his roommate Allison (Poppy Montgomery) who is bisexual and therefore not wholly available. He decides to leave Los Angeles and move to the East Coast where a lucrative deal awaits him to write the memoirs of a famous man. At the last moment he meets one Val (Jennifer Westfeldt), an animal activist: the chemistry is there but each has a conflicting program. Owen is honest with her, a factor that does not chase her away, but both part ways to other parts of the world. Upon return to LA after a disappointing experience on the East Coast, tables turn and surprises arise. And the ending is a mixture of silly and unsatisfying.Movies like this are meant to entertain and some of the dialogue is clever albeit acerbic. It just that the idea of relationship examination under these terms is so worn out that the movie just doesn't spark any innovative thoughts. After about thirty minutes into the film this 'audience' lost interest.
Good Movie if you are in mood of it.., 2 May 2009 Author: ona6 from United States
Owen McCabe (Paul Schneider) is an writer residing in LA. Shaken up by a minor earth-quake, he realizes how unhappy he is with his life: he just writes the lives of other people just to make to look good (or better than what they actually are) and he has not met someone special one all this time. So, he decides to "break-up" with his life and move on. Unfortunately for him, just when he accepts a job in New Jersey, he meets Val (Jennifer Westfeldt) at the airport. The conflict between knowing that Val is out there available and that he really needs to go to Jersey forces him to put this relationship on fast track, facilitating his decision: should he stay or should he go?Of course, when any romantic movie begins with such a premise, it sounds like one of these awfully made chick-flicks like On the Line (no offense): guy meets the girl but can not forget about her and yet they somehow wind up together a result of some freak coincidences and/or events. Thank god, "how to lose your lover" in nothing like this cliché. Here, writer/director Jordan Hawley comes up two original ideas. The initial concept of "breaking of my life" seemed pretty fresh: Owen quits his job, cancels his cell-phone, sells his car and starts a fight with everybody so he can not come back to LA, no matter what. In other words, he burns his bridges in LA. But I think Hawley hits a home-run with the way Owen puts his relationship with Val on fast track (e.g., meeting the parents on the first date, asking her to have sex almost immediately), together with seeing what such a shallow guy prioritizes in his relationship with Val. Additionally, side-characters like Bucky Brandt (Fred Willard) as the astronaut with drinking problems and Allison (Poppy Montgomery) as the bisexual love- interest of Owen are well-designed and beautifully fit into the story.How to lose your lover is not Eiffel Tower of romantic comedy genre and it won't be a timeless classic either. However, if you watch this movie just keeping in mind that this is nothing but a little movie and appreciating aforementioned ideas of Hawley, you'll find it good and entertaining. I have known Paul Schneider through his minor roles (like in "the family stone") and this is the first time I saw him under the spotlight. I must say he gives a solid performance as this a**hole Owen. Despite that the end seems a little bit weak and unsatisfying comparing the rest of the movie, How to lose your lover is definitely worth- seeing, especially if you like dark comedy...7/10
6 out of 12 people found the following review useful: A heart warming love story, 20 March 2006 Author: magnumco from Studio City
Beautiful and well worth watching. A successful biographer wonders where his future lies and soon begins to tire of his supposedly shallow life in Los Angeles. When an offer for work on the East Coast comes along he seriously considers burning all his bridges and leave Los Angeles forever. All goes according to plan until a chance encounter at the airport delays his departure.I found it funny and enjoyable to watch. Of course it will appeal most to LA residents for the the subtle humor "I like the bus", but any one who has transplanted to a big city will enjoy the movie. It's a very well made movie with Fred Willard providing his usual impeccable humor.
0 out of 2 people found the following review useful: It's all in here..., 22 January 2007 Author: peterje98 from United Kingdom
Jordan Hawley's 'How to Lose Your Lover' is my kind of movie – all about brainy self-examination, funny, and full of twists. For me it's genuinely original – goodbyes are always about fake warm feelings, not burning bridges. Enjoy the psychosis, the antics, the irreverence and the decadence - but when it counts there is real heart in here, too.Setting this sort of thing in LA is something I've never seen. I want to call Hawley 'West Coast Woody'. Has any movie celebrated the buildings and landmarks of LA in the same way?
4 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Very Funny. Really enjoyed it!, 26 March 2006 Author: Andrew Parkinson from United States
I loved the movie! My wife, a friend and I watched it together and found ourselves laughing really hard. We particularly liked the scenes where the main character did his best to alienate all of his "friends". I'm sure all of us have had similar urges with people we have met either socially or at work, but would never act on them the way he does. The dialogue and reactions really are brilliantly written and cast.We also loved the relationships and character development throughout the move, as well as the ending twist.A definite must for anyone who loves a good movie and loves to laugh!
3 out of 9 people found the following review useful: didn't like it., 20 February 2007 Author: jackhammer111 from United States
this is one of the worst films i've ever seen. to me, it represents the worst aspects of the movie "business". it's a product. not brand name at that. it's the grocery chain generic version of laundry soap or pop corn or a cheap version of a scouring pad/sponge. in order to sustain an industry you have to have product and this is pure product. OK, i've seen worse. at least they try to make a statement about finding love and the hoops we jump through but it contradicts itself time and time again until the characters stand for nothing. personally, i don't relate to any of them or care for them any more than i would poor schmucks caught in the wrong line in a grocery. and their plight seems to me no more serious than that. i give it four yawns. fortunately i was learning my new cell phone so it wasn't a total was of time. (sarcasm on) and how is it that Paul Schneider hasn't gone on to stardom. sarcasm off). this film is as replaceable as a piston rod.
6 out of 17 people found the following review useful: For a thoroughly un-entertaining time, watch this, 20 March 2006 Author: Knuckle from United States
Like the title, everything in "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" is swiped or cribbed from another, greater source.In this monstrosity, Paul Schneider, plays the main character Owen, a weedy author of pot boiler murderer biographies who aspires to become a legitimate, serious author. Far from being a sympathetic schlep who we can sympathize with for falling short of his dreams, Owen comes off as a petty, whiny, vindictive loser who does more to sabotage his own efforts than the supposedly cynical, money-is-everything city that surrounds him.Given an opportunity to enter the world of legitimate literature by writing the biography of a scientist, Owen for some reason feels the need to leave the city in the rudest way possible. Ostensibly, this is so he will never be tempted to come back but it comes off as a contrived way to allow our hero to scandalize, verbally brutalize, and otherwise act in a horribly anti-social way to everyone that he has been associating with over the past few years. But then, just as he has burned every single bridge imaginable, he meets and falls madly in love with the girl of his dreams. Oh, the humanity...Aside from some highly derivative dialog (you'll notice some Albert Brooks-esquire lines and deliveries in there) there is a scene involving lime Jell-O that will have you screaming, "That's EXACTLY like the lobster scene in "Annie Hall!" None of Owen's pranks, and the situations that arise from them, are particularly original, clever, or compelling and so when you come to the highly predictable end you are almost relieved. That is, ALMOST. A likelier scenario is that you will be left feeling gypped of your time and money, with your intelligence thoroughly insulted.
8 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Surprisingly Meaningful Romantic Comedy, 15 February 2006 Author: from United States
In what proves to be a most enjoyable viewing experience, this new filmmaker (Jordan Hawley) does more than provide diverting fodder. He cleverly documents the struggle between one's expectations and one's reality, the desire to achieve dreams imagined in youth - idyllic family life in New England - and the need to appreciate what you have - a charming existence in Los Angeles.Paul Schneider's performance is remarkable, while not necessarily surprising (see his brief turn in "The Family Stone.") His embodiment of Owen, the clever and reflective protagonist, gives us plenty to appreciate and even more to laugh about.Los Angeles is rarely portrayed in this positive a light so effectively. Without becoming too sentimental, the filmmaker shows the people of Los Angeles what they could be seeing everyday, if they would open their eyes and quit bitching.
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