Interpersonal Communication: Application

In the movie, How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, there are so many wrong examples of how a relationship should be. Kate Hudson plays Andie who is a journalist who is writing an article called, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days for the magazine she works at. To get the experience she needs to write the article, she dates a man for 10 days and does every possible thing wrong in order for him to dump her. Meanwhile, Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is trying to find a date for a ball at his company. If he succeeds at this he will be in charge of the advertising for the new diamond company account. The two meet and neither reveals their true intentions of why they need each other. They are basically using one another to get what they want. This is a love style called ludus which is "a game playing love style that is manipulative and lacks emotional intensity and commitment" (Tubbs & Moss, 296).

By using one another, they will both get hurt in the end. Andie puts Ben through many hellish experiences trying to get him to break up with her so she can use it for her article but he stays with her cause he needs a date for the ball. After many different experiences with each other, they finally reveal their true intentions and stay together. In this movie, Andie is manipulating Ben by telling him things about herself that aren't true. She does this in order for him to break up with her which is what would normally happen because she is lying and he shouldn't trust her. In order for them to have a healthy relationship they need to have trust, but they don't because they don't reveal their true intentions to one another until the end of the movie. Although Ben shows Andie the affection she needs, she is thoroughly confused and doesn't get why he is doing so because she is using and lying to him. This movie is the ultimate show of how a relationship should not go. Even the ending would never happen in real life because the two people in the relationship would be very hurt by the other.