This ‘How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days’ plot hole has bothered me for 15 years

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is an immensely re-watchable movie. It’s not a cinematic classic or anything, but upon a recent revisiting I remembered how well it pulls off what could have easily been an awful, squirmy storyline — somehow not becoming overly saccharine or callous — and how perfectly the quippy, wisecrack-y lines are delivered.

Even the lines that are clichés. Especially the lines that are clichés.

There are three things you need to know about my feelings on this movie before you read any further:

That one thing is a gaping plot hole in this movie, and an entirely avoidable one at that. It has bothered me during every rewatch for all fifteen years since the movie came out.

It’s a Celine Dion punchline that happens a little more than halfway through the movie. Here’s how it goes down.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know that it revolves around two people (Kate Hudson’s Andie Anderson and Matthew McConaughey’s Benjamin Barry) dating. Andie is trying to “lose” the titular guy in 10 days for her magazine column, and Ben is trying to prove he can make a woman fall in love with him in only 10 days to land a big advertising account.

(Note: There are other things that don’t make sense in our reality, but they make sense in the film’s reality. That’s fine. The film’s entire premise falls under this umbrella. But the “twist” that I’m about to explain, doesn’t even make sense in the movie’s reality.)

The move establishes early that both Anderson and Barry are Knicks fans. The Knicks are, inexplicably, in the NBA Finals (even more inexplicable: this isn’t the gaping plot hole I am talking about). At the beginning of their “relationship,” Andie gets Finals tickets, and takes Ben to a game at Madison Square Garden. We receive confirmation later in the movie that this is Game 1 of the series.

The next game in the series during which we see them interact is Game 2, when Ben cooks a beautiful lamb dinner to eat while watching the game at his house and Andie pretends to be a vegetarian so they have to go to a New Age-y restaurant with lots of henna tattoos and muesli-based entrees. She then watches the game in the back of the restaurant with the kitchen staff while Ben fumes over missing it. Cutesy romantic comedy hijinks, nothing else to see here.

So here’s where things get real dumb. Dumber than the Knicks making the NBA Finals in this fictional universe.

In advance of Game 3, Ben pretends he can’t hang out because the game is on, when it’s actually because by this point Andie’s shenanigans have gotten so bad he’s barely holding on to his sanity in the relationship. Excuse me, “relationship.”

Andie then pretends she has Knicks tickets so Ben will spend time with her. Everyone in this movie is extremely healthy and definitely not violating an uncountable amount of social mores.

The following conversation unfolds:

Andie: Hey, Benny Bear?

Ben: Hey!

Andie: Do you have plans tonight?

Ben: Tonight?

Andie: l have another surprise for you.

Ben: Ah ... you know what? Not a good night for me. l-l, l gotta work. Of all things.

Andie: Oh, no.

Ben: Yeah, yeah, l know. We got a Knicks game on. l had a broccoli-and-asparagus casserole planned for you and me. Right there in front of the TV. And we’re not going to be able to do that either ’cause l got to go in to work.

Andie: That’s too bad, ‘cause l had tickets for tonight.

Ben: Tickets?

Andie: Tickets! Great tickets. Front row seats, right in the action. l mean, you can smell ... the sweat.

Ben: l guess ... l ... l don’t really have to. Oh, why don’t l call Tony, and he can come fill in for me, right? Great. Oh, yeah! Thank you.

Andie: Honey, you’re more than welcome.

Ben: Yesssssssss. Oh, look what time it is. Huh? [makes basketball shooting motion]

Andie: This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and l’m going to share it with you.

The scene then cuts to outside Madison Square Garden and instead of a Knicks game, the two of them are leaving a Celine Dion concert, tour T-shirts and all.

First of all, no one makes a joke at Queen Celine’s expense. You will respect Le Dion.

Second of all, if the concert is happening at MSG on a night when the Knicks are playing basketball — which is the entire joke! — then Ben would know they are out of town. His entire personality in this movie is hot-and-smarmy ad guy who loves sports, and who specifically loves the Knicks.

Fancy Ad Man. Sportsy McGruff. Chief Dude of Dudes. Basketbro. Literally Has A Pool Table In His Office Which Is Not A Real Character Trait Guy.

Wouldn’t know the Knicks are meant to be out of town for Game 3 when he is planning on blowing Andie off to watch the game by himself mere minutes before she tricks him? Not enough time has passed in the movie’s universe for the Knicks to have a home game again.

Except that the Knicks are not out of town. In the scene, Knicks fans are streaming out of MSG alongside the concert goers. So not only is the movie now positing that the Knicks have played three straight Finals games at home in less than a week, but also that Celine Dion would be shuttled off to the smaller theater at MSG rather than the main floor.

Preposterous.

Plus, a concert and a Finals game scheduled to get out at the same time through the same general exit? Okay, that part is actually realistic because nobody in New York would think to plan that properly in advance. Very true to life, that.

What’s worse, is the joke could have worked with just a few tweaks. Put the concert at Giants’ Stadium and have a game-winning shot on a TV on their way out, for example. Or get slightly more creative with your joke. They had to spend at least a few minutes working on this gag when the screenplay got put together, but no more than six minutes. If the writers spent more than six minutes thinking this over and they send me proof of these efforts, I will print a public retraction.

They couldn’t have possibly put in the effort on this one, and now I will be haunted by this for the rest of my days every time I want to unwind with a glass of wine and a fun, inconsequential romantic comedy.