Mandy Moore stars as Halley, a young hip high school student who's convinced true love doesn't exist based on the crazy relationships around her. Her mother is divorcing her father who is dating a younger woman Halley can't stand. Her crazed sister is planning a wedding but has second thoughts and her best friend has fallen madly in love for the first time leaving Halley to feel even more alone. All seems lost until Halley meets a new boy who tries to show her what love is really all about.
(78 votes)
2.
Sometimes life gets turned upside down. And maybe that’s why it’s so hard to believe that anyone, especially 17 year-old Halley Martin (Mandy Moore), could actually experience that thing called love.
The people closest to Halley are in the midst of major upheavals in their love lives. Her mother, Lydia (Allison Janney), is embittered by her recently finalized divorce. Her sister, Ashley (Mary Catherine Garrison), is marrying a guy with whom she is constantly fighting. Her best friend, Scarlett (Alexandra Holden), can’t keep her hands off of her first serious boyfriend. Most distressingly for Halley, her father, Len (Peter Gallagher), who is a DJ at a local radio station, combats his midlife crisis with a stereotypically boyish elopement to the station’s much-younger traffic reporter.
So how’s Halley supposed to deal? She isn’t about to let herself succumb to the pipe dream of storybook romance, and Macon Forrester (Trent Ford) is the one guy who challenges her idea that love just complicates a perfectly good friendship. As Halley’s life grows more and more complicated, she finds a friend in Macon, but when she feels herself falling for him, will Halley move beyond her fears and disappointments to experience real love?
A humorous and poignant look at teen romance, How to Deal stars Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember) as the independent and spirited Halley Martin. Allison Janney (American Beauty, NBC’s “The West Wing”) plays Halley’s mother Lydia and Peter Gallagher (Mr. Deeds, CBS’ “Cupid & Cate”) plays her father Len. The ensemble cast also includes Trent Ford, Alexandra Holden, Dylan Baker, Nina Foch, Mackenzie Astin, Connie Ray, Mary Catherine Garrison and Sonja Smits.
Clare Kilner (Janice Beard: 45 wpm) directs from a screenplay by Neena Beber, based on two novels, Someone Like You and That Summer, by Sarah Dessen. William Teitler and Erica Huggins produce. Ted Field, Chris Van Allsburg, Scott Kroopf and David Linde, as well as Toby Emmerich and Michele Weiss, serve as executive producers. The co-producer is Stephanie Striegel. Production designer Dan Davis, director of photography Eric Edwards, costume designer Alexandra Welker and editor Janice Hampton, A.C.E., complete the creative team.
Capitol Records will release the soundtrack, featuring an eclectic mix of artists that includes Skye Sweetnam, Beth Orton, Liz Phair, The Flaming Lips and Cat Stevens, on July 8th, 2003.
New Line Cinema will release How To Deal (rated PG-13 by the M.P.A.A for “sexual content, drug material, language and some thematic elements”) nationwide on July 18th, 2003.
(74 votes)
3.
Teen idol Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember) learns how to deal with an awful lot--How to Deal crams divorce, teen pregnancy, a wedding, a car accident, and a pot-smoking grandmother into a single year in the life of Halley Martin (Moore). Halley's so resentful of her parents' divorce (and her father's impending remarriage) that she resolves not to fall in love--so of course a hunky guy named Macon (Trent Ford) decides that she's the girl for him and woos her with gentle persistence. Two things save all of this from being a teenage soap opera: First, a refreshingly realistic (though not explicit) and unjudgmental look at teenage sex; second, a sterling supporting cast, including Allison Janney (The West Wing), Peter Gallagher (sex, lies, and videotape), and Dylan Baker (Happiness), alongside pleasant young actors like Alexandra Holden (Sugar and Spice). --Bret Fetzer
(69 votes)
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