Tagline: It’s funny what love can make you do.
Dustin, an amiable guy, is in love with Alexis, a coworker. When she tells him she just wants to be friends, he hires his roommate Tank, a fast-talking, amoral scoundrel who has a side business: men whose women have dumped them hire Tank to take their ex-girlfriends out on the date from Hell, to drive the women back into their old boyfriends’ arms. He takes out Alexis who, against her better judgment, decides she needs some randy fun, so Tank is in a quandary: take Alexis up on her offer, or stay true to his friend. More complications ensue as the wedding of Alexis’s sister approaches. Tank seeks advice from his father, Dustin pursues Alexis, and questions of self-worth need answers.
My Best Friend’s Girl is a 2008 romantic comedy film by Howard Deutch and stars Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Lizzy Caplan, Riki Lindhome, Mini Anden, Hilary Pingle, Nate Torrence, Amanda Brooks, Malcolm Barrett, Taran Killam and Faye Grant. It was released on September 19, 2008. The film opened at No. 3 at the North American box office making $8,265,357 USD in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $41.6 million worldwide.
The film was poorly received by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 14% based on 58 reviews, with a consensus that “My Best Friend’s Girl spends too much time being vulgar and offensive, leaving little room for laughs.” Metacritic gives film had an average score of 34% based on 13 reviews, indicating a generally negative response. My Best Friend’s Girl earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (Kate Hudson; also for Fool’s Gold). Dane Cook also harshly criticized the poster for the film on his Myspace blog.
About the Story
Sherman ‘Tank’ Turner (Dane Cook) is a help line operator with a hobby. If a guy loses a girl and wants her back he gets in touch with Tank and pays him to take the girl on a bad date. Throughout the evening Tank inevitably behaves in the most moronic fashion causing the girl to realize that her ex wasn’t really such a bad guy after all.
He shares an apartment with his step cousin Dustin (Jason Biggs) who has fallen for his work colleague Alexis (Kate Hudson). Dustin takes Alexis on a date and confesses his love but she insists they remain friends. After the date Dustin explains his situation to Tank who volunteers his services. Dustin initially turns him down but the next day sees Alexis flirting with another co-worker and begs Tank to take Alexis out.
Tank bumps into Alexis and they arrange to go out. He behaves badly all night but Alexis is too drunk to care. When he drops her off she expects him to come in but he resists the temptation out of loyalty to Dustin. Alexis calls Dustin but when they meet she explains that her date with Tank has motivated her to see other men. Dustin sends Alexis roses and an apology poem in Tank’s name. Alexis calls Tank at work and berates him for leaving early the previous night.
Tank goes to see Alexis and they end up having casual sex on a regular basis while Dustin begins a series of desperate attempts to stay friends with her. Tank’s feelings for Alexis start to grow but after consulting with his father (Alec Baldwin) he has doubts that he is deserving of a serious relationship with her. While attending the wedding of Alexis’ sister Rachel (Diora Baird) he realizes that she is one of his previous bad dates. The groom, Josh (Taran Killam), asks Tank to keep quiet about his use of his services. After overhearing Alexis telling Rachel that she has fallen for him Tank’s guilt causes him to sabotage their relationship and call Dustin to apologize.
About the Production
At first glance, Tank and Alexis, the two romantic leads in Lionsgate’s “My Best Friend’s Girl”, seem like the furthest thing from a compatible couple, and most definitely not the stuff from which romantic comedies are traditionally made. Tank is a perennial bachelor who’s turned his talent for offending and manipulating women into a lucrative side job.
And Alexis, the ideal woman for any marriage-minded man, is tired of monogamous relationships and just wants casual sex. That true romance, and even love, would emerge from their unlikely pairing is the spiky charm that distinguishes “My Best Friend’s Girl” from the pack of romantic comedy lookalikes.
“Relationships are far from picture perfect in this movie,” says star Kate Hudson, who plays Alexis. “It’s never picture perfect. Everybody’s human. Everybody makes mistakes. This movie is willing to look at those messy things and allows you to laugh at them along the way.”
“The thing that’s unique about this movie is that neither of the lead characters even wants to fall in love,” adds co-star Dane Cook. “It’s not a traditional romantic comedy in any sense. But even though it has an edge, it’s filled with heart, too.”
Hudson readily admits that Alexis’ desire to play the field after years of monogamous relationships is not the typical starting point for a romantic comedy heroine. A successful lawyer, Alexis begins “My Best Friend’s Girl” by ending her relationship with obsessively overeager Dustin (American Pie’s Jason Biggs) and deciding to take advantage of her single status. “For the first time ever in a movie I end up being kind of like the guy,” says Hudson. “Alexis feels like she needs to get out there and be young and not so regimented, so she starts doing little booty calls and saying, `Yeah, I can do this. I can date like this.’”
While Tank seems like the ideal partner for commitment-free, casual sex, Alexis’ emotions come into play despite her best efforts to avoid them. Says Hudson, “When she meets Tank, he unleashes a side of her that she’s never experienced before. And of course, inevitably, she ends up enjoying it a lot.”
While Hudson has been able to flex her comedic muscles in past projects like “How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days” and “You, Me and Dupree”, “My Best Friend’s Girl” presented the actress with a refreshing opportunity: starring in an R-rated romantic comedy. “I finally got to swear and say and do certain things that most people say to each other in normal, everyday life,” says Hudson. “I got a little taste of what those `Sex and the City’ girls were up to for so long, which was fun.” She laughs. “I’ve never looked into a box of masturbatory aides on film before.”
One of Hudson’s favorite experiences during production was shooting a scene in which Tank brings Alexis to a strip club. Tank does so with the sole intention of offending her, but Alexis is too drunk to take offense and actually ends up enjoying herself. “That was a really funny moment,” admits Hudson. “I was excited to do that scene when I read it. I don’t think I’ve ever been drunk in a movie. It was great to be a little crazy and not care. There’s a lot of stuff I got to do in this that was fun that I haven’t done before. This really was a new kind of movie for me to do.
While “My Best Friend’s Girl” embraces the freedom that comes with an `R’ rating, the filmmakers consciously avoided gratuitous exploitation and exaggerated gross-out gags. Explains producer Josh Shader, “When you see Dustin and Tank together talking about pornography, or Amy and Alexis talking about masturbation, it’s real. It’s how friends talk. It was never intentional for us to try and push the limits. It was just about playing it real and having the audience recognize themselves in the characters.”
“I hope that people relate to this movie on an adult level in terms of the relationships because we really tried to make them ring true,” adds Hudson.
While he is widely known for his legendary, kinetic stand-up routines, Dane Cook has also proven himself a sturdy leading man in features, from the slacker superstore clerk in “Employee of the Month” to the cursed suitor in “Good Luck Chuck”. But for his next comedy, Cook was eager to find something that more accurately matched his comedic sensibility. “We wanted something with edge,” says producer Brian Volk-Weiss, who is also Cook’s manager. “Dane’s humor has a lot of edge and this script nailed it perfectly. As soon as I read it, I called Dane. When Dane read it, he immediately called me and said, `This is it. This is it.’”
A self-professed bachelor with no interest in love, Tank is, initially at least, not the sort of guy you would wish on anyone. Guys who’ve lost their girlfriends hire Tank to date their exes; and he ensures the experience is so awful that those girls run with newfound appreciation back to their old beaus. “Tank is in many ways as despicable a guy as you will ever meet,” says producer Greg Lessons. “Every awful quality in every guy out there, that’s Tank. But, at his core, he’s a romantic. What he actually does is bring people together. He would deny it. And the movie is essentially about the repressed romantic part of him busting out when it hits him.”
Says producer Josh Shader, “I think audiences are really going to enjoy getting to see Dane Cook be a character that really lets Dane be Dane. He finally gets to play a role where he gets to let it all out, both comedically and emotionally.”
“Look at what Dane does in his comedy routines,” says producer Adam Herz. “He’s fearless on stage and he’s fearless in front of the camera. Every time he dips into that well, the bucket comes up full of something.”
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My Best Friend’s Girl (2008)
Directed by: Howard Deutch
Starring: Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Lizzy Caplan, Riki Lindhome, Mini Anden, Hilary Pingle, Nate Torrence, Amanda Brooks, Malcolm Barrett, Taran Killam, Faye Grant
Screenplay by: Jordan Cahan
Production Design by: Jane Ann Stewart
Cinematography by: Jack N. Green
Film Editing by: Seth Flaum
Costume Design by: Marilyn Vance
Art Direction by: T.K. Kirkpatrick
Set Decoration by: Kyra Friedman
Art Direction by: T.K. Kirkpatrick
Music by: Bruno Coulais
MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong bloody gruesome violence, grisly images involving nudity, sexual content, language.
Studio: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: September 19, 2008
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