How to Deal would work so much better as a teen film refusing to conform to cookie-cutter ideology if it didn't always seem like it was contradicting what it originally set out to do. Whether this issue was brought on by Sarah Dessen, the author of That Summer and Someone Like You, which the film is based off of or screenwriter Neena Beber is up to debate, but for whatever reason, How to Deal feels like a rebel being proved wrong, foolish, and worthless and I doubt that's how it was originally conceived.The story revolves around seventeen year old Halley Martin (Mandy Moore), who becomes disillusioned with the concept of love because of how it appears in her own life. Her mother is going through a rocky time after divorcing Halley's dad, a senseless manchild of a radio-jockey and her sister's forthcoming marriage with another man that seems to be made up of nothing but fighting and bickering. So, because of these two things, Halley simply doesn't believe in love anymore and goes on with her life with that mindset.This, right here, should be the plot of How to Deal, but strangely, Beber (or Dessen, perhaps) decides to throw the film for a loop and have Halley be the subject of a love story with the geeky hunk Macon (Trent Ford). This is where How to Deal seems to be contradicting itself. The film should be revolving around Halley's life rejecting love, perhaps embracing hobbies, becoming more artistic and sociable in her life and at school, or even just being more comfortable around guys with the conflict potentially being rejecting her family and mistaking her family's love for ingenuous behavior if something were to go wrong in her life.Instead, the film brings up a romance, which feels offputting because it gives the message to young teens who maybe have questions about love the impression that if they think real love doesn't exist they are wrong and foolish because it does. How to Deal plays like "love propaganda," in the sense that its goal appears to be convincing a segment of the population who have rejected romantic notions and the idea that love makes people blind to reality (usually hard-hearted realists or mature pessimists) see the stupidity of their ways and rethink their initial thoughts.Early on, when the film is still trying to show us that Halley may be on to something with her ideology before pulling a complete three-sixty with the story, we get a glimpse at Halley with her close friend watching Halley's sister argue with her ex. Halley makes my aforementioned statement about love making people blind to reality by showing that, while they fight and argue, they will kiss and make up in a contrived way in just a few minutes. Such a thing unfolds. Right there, the film has just proved Halley's point by saying that love makes people ignore or lessen the bad in life because they are so in awe with the person they are with. However, just a few scenes later, Halley is seen falling for Macon in a way just as contrived as the events we just saw unfold.Because of this, little additional features about How to Deal can be admired, with the exception of the cast's uniformly solid performances in making their characters at least somewhat believable in their personalities. Not every person in high school is like the cast of American Pie and How to Deal tries (if stumbling in the process) to show this segment in a way that doesn't appear condescending. Mandy Moore seems to be born to play the role of a rebellious teen girl, questioning conventions within society and conformity due to a heavily-praised idea. It isn't her fault that the potential impact of her character is cheapened by a screenplay that has an abrupt change in its message halfway through the film.Another compliment, as back-handed as it sounds, is that How to Deal is never boring despite what I find to be a glaring inconsistency with its story and message. Many poorly-done romantic comedies become tired early on and very repetitive, but the characters and their actors decide to be upbeat about their roles and all seem committed to the material. Perhaps they saw something I'm missing. This is an entry in the new genre I'll call "love propaganda" and I'm hoping another film won't fall into that category.Starring: Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, and Trent Ford. Directed by: Clare Kilner.

Mandy Moore is still a teenager here, playing Halley Martin. Her parents have split up, her sister is engaged to be married, and overall she has a lot of things to deal with at her young, high-school age. Thus the title "How to Deal" with all those things.Her best friend has a serious boyfriend, they practice unsafe sex and she turns up pregnant right as the new school year is starting. Add to that, her boyfriend is playing soccer and after a good shot he is smiling to her as he falls dead, a victim of a congenital heart problem.Then her dad, a on-air radio personality, decides he has met his new soul-mate and plans to get married.And finally, cute boy at school takes an interest in her and she has to deal with that while dealing with two weddings and her friend about to give birth.This is not a great movie, but it is a cute movie if you like Mandy Moore. I watched it with Natalie on winter break from college. It was a good diversion on a cold day.

A tragic death, a tragic teen pregnancy, a tragic car accident,a tragic divorce, a tragic broken up engagement...sigh...sob... the circle of life...Will Mandy Moore ever believe in love?Much like Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias, Mandy also gets an awful boy haircut and maintains her vulnerable but compassionate spirit despite all of womanhood's trials and tribulations surrounding her at every turn- through the guise of her caricaturishly naive and impossibly flat-haired pregnant friend, her sister who has a dwarf's build (no neck, huge head)and does the worst-ever portrayal of a drunken bachelorette, and her constipated-looking crone of a mother who got dumped for a younger woman who dresses badly.Mandy struggles with her own feelings for a boy who has the more feminine version of her haircut, she does some gratuitous yoga poses, drinks alcohol? out of chocolates, watches "Star Wars" and tries "to deal" with her ridiculously satanic-looking DJ dad.Don't worry; it ends with a wedding AND a birth AND a first kiss (and you knew that the timing would work out that way; so predictable).Aww...the circle of life... then close in on all the characters making stupid googly eyes at the new baby.

I would highly recommend How To Deal. Combining Sarah Dessen's two brilliant novels, (Someone Like You and That Summer) Mandy Moore and Trent Ford as Haley Martin and Macon Forrester deliver a wonderful, creative, and believable story. The plot incorporates the novels together beautifully,without venturing drastically from the books. It is very rare to find a movie that can live up to it's book and especially one that is made from two but How To Deal does this amazingly well. It is refreshing to see such real teenage problems put onto screen without clichéd humor or ridicule's plots. The acting in this movie was decent at the very least, Nina Foch provides comic humor as the grandmother and Mandy Moore plays a perfect Haley. As far as Mandy Moore is concerned this is diffenatley one of her better films.