It's hard to get that weepy-laugh sensation from a romantic comedy if the leads are avaricious creeps with nothing but career agendas in mind. That's how this sassy-romp wanna-be rides for the first two acts, and though it does eventually begin to endear, in the end it forfeits everything with an angry and humorless tell-all rendition of the song "You're So Vain."

Andie (Kate Hudson) is the "How To" columnist at a Cosmo-like magazine. For her current assignment (a favor to a friend recently spurned) she has to meet a guy, have him fall in love with her and then make him dump her, all within 10 days. Her victim, Benjamin (Matthew McConaughey), is a self-assured ad exec who has bet (the prize is landing a mega account) that he can keep a relationship going for more than 10 days. Hudson and McConaughey do justice to their caricatures, and there's not much chemistry -- not that director Donald Petrie seems to require any. He's content with "a crack-enhanced Kathie Lee Gifford" who pet-names Benjamin's penis "Princess Sophia." Benjamin can't get it up, and neither can the film. (114 minutes) Opens Friday at the Apple Valley, Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Providence Place Mall 16, and Showcase cinemas.