I had forgotten movies could be this gut-wrenchingly awful. I love Mandy Moore, but one has to wonder if she even bothered to check out the script before she said yes to this drivel. The script is wretched, the editing is blotchy and confusing, and there is nary a character you can genuinely care about here. Everything about this movie is wrong, and in the end, the writing (and the entire feel) is so horrid that not even her screen presence could save it.Why do movies like this ever see the light of day? {Lets see ... Mandy Moore ... 2003 ... hot teen commodity ... lets do it!}Yeah, after sitting through 90 minutes of this, the joke's on me. I cant remember the last time something was this painful to watch. If you're alone in a remote cabin on a frigid night and have nothing else to do but watch this dreck, well -- go outside and take your chances with the bears.

Halley (Mandy Moore) is having trouble figuring out "how to deal" with problems. Her parents have just divorced, because her Peter Pan-like father (Peter Gallagher), a disc jockey, had his eyes set on a much younger woman. Her mother (Allison Janney) is, appropriately, crushed and remote. Big sister Ashley is planning a wedding with her buttoned-down fiancé and trying to make everything perfect. If it were not for her best friend Scarlett, Halley would be out in the cold. Then, tragedy strikes. Scarlett's boyfriend dies of a heart condition in the middle of a soccer game and Halley is thrown for another loop. When she is approached by Macon, a friend of the deceased boy, she just wants to be friends. But, is it possible for Halley to keep Macon at arms length? Teens may love this movie and it does have likable stars. Moore is really quite nice as the teen with troubles. Gallagher and Janney are, likewise, very fine as the parents. Indeed, the acting of the cast members is good and not the movie's problem at all. Instead, it is the script and its contrivances that are the problem. Halley seems too worldly wise to be a teen and just boomerangs from one problem to another, in this viewer's opinion. No matter. Most young fans of the film will probably embrace it mightily. But, if you are over 30, watching the film may seem more like a chore than entertainment.

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.

I really like Mandy Moore, I think she's a good actress and under-rated, maybe cause she's a pop singer too, I guess... I've seen many movies with her in it, and loved most of them... but I didn't get this one... She's great in it, as always! The story of her character, living her adolescence facing her parent's divorce is classic but interesting and very well acted, especially Alison Janey... and the music is great too! The "side" story of her best friend is also amazing! But the fact is, even if it's not the most important thing in this movie, I didn't get the love part... there is no chemistry here, between her character, and her boyfriend. Even if he's kinda cute, he looks too young for the part,and is not really convincing to me... my point is it doesn't work! I know it's only my opinion! So, if you like Mandy Moore, you'll like this movie! but love it? I don't know! Watch it, and make your own opinion!!