I believe there is something to be said about the recent slew of romantic comedies to emerge from the depths of Hollywood's money hungry elite. They have very often become event films, meant to draw a man and his date out of the confines of a creative evening on the town and into a show where men are put on trial for their inabilities in love. When you look at films like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hitch, or even the very recent Failure to Launch, you see an assortment of films that expose men as clumsy, incapable, and severely unlikely heroes in love. This seems to be the one factor that links all romantic comedies together — the screenwriter's play on a man's idiocy in his pursuit of love, laughter, and happiness. It is often both entertaining and despicable in a very seamless way.

How to Lose Your Lover, a film directed by Jordan Hawley, whose previous notoriety comes from penning various episodes of ephemeral television sitcoms, is a film that does not try to hide what it truly is: another romantic comedy with intentions of making its hero look like the most inept man of love in the entire world, and then bring him back to his reality and deliver love to his doorstep with only a few minor bumps and bruises to his formerly large ego.

It is the story of Owen, played by Paul Schneider (The Family Stone, Elizabethtown), a Los Angeles biographer whose talent for diluting the lives of celebrities could often be confused with his ability to dilute and pilfer the facts of his own life. Owen has spent much of his seven years in L.A. lying to his friends and his lovers, but most of all to himself. Almost halfheartedly, Owen decides that it is time to put his old life to rest after gaining closure on his most recent long term relationship. This decision leads him into a quick downward spiral, one that involves divulging his brutally honest views to all those around him, a tirade that leaves him without friends, job, and shelter.

With his life completely obliterated by the truth, Owen is set to leave for the East Coast, where a new job and a brand new lease on life await. Unfortunately for Owen, the forces of Karma seemed to have other plans. While boarding his flight out of his own self-inflicted hell he meets Val, played by Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), a friend of his ex who has recently been equally as dumped-on in love. After a few drinks and some conversation, Owen realizes that he has done something terrible by falling for Val, which leaves him with a reason to stay. He knows that without failing in his relationship with Val, he will not be able to move on and create a new life, so he must try to do anything possible to test his newfound affection and see if Val is worth sticking around for.