The perfect romantic comedy mixes a leading man with one hell of a leading lady, then gets peppered with a few laughs, a fantastic make-out song and/or session, and tops it off with a happy ending. A terrible romantic comedy casts a leading man viewers despise, a plot line full of unrealistic happenings, and ugly clothes. Guess which Worth Winning falls into… The latter, but it even manages to outshine these characteristics by adding completely unrealistic scenes and plotlines.

Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) is a weather man for the local television station. He’s arrogant, good looking, rocks a killer pair of suspenders and is quite the womanizer. His friend Ned Broudy (Mark Blum) gives him a bet, over three months to propose to three different woman, that he will choose. If Worth goes through with it, then he gets an original Picasso painting.

Worth accepts the conditions and finds his three waiting lasses are Erin Cooper (Holve), Veronica Briskow (Madeleine Stowe), and Eleanor Larimore (Lesley Ann Warren). Cooper is a carefree blonde who knows her way around the football field, and she’s quite young. Briskow is a friend of Broudy’s wife, Clair, and has a demeanor similar to an angry feminist. She’s independent, comfortable in her own skin, and definitely marked as a difficult one to win over. Larimore is in a miserable marriage, with an even more miserable son who acts like the twin of her husband. She’s clearly looking for an escape from her real life.

Worth eagerly begins his wooing ways on each of the ladies and obviously, is successful with each one. But eventually, a hiccup comes along just at the time he realizes he really, truly loves one of the ladies. As soon as he decides to really make a commitment, the ladies team up to get back at him.

A few things just made this movie off right from the start:

  1. There’s never a ring involved. I thought that accepting a proposal for marriage generally included this heavy piece of hardware (as Big showed us in Sex & the City, it’s why there’s a diamond involved in the deal).

  2. When Eleanor accepts her proposal, she’s still married. But never once in her mind does it dawn on her that she would have to tell her son, her husband, and family.

  3. Speaking of family, no one’s family is ever involved. I get that not everyone in this world comes from tight-knit families, but isn’t it odd to just get engaged without meeting a brother, uncle or cousin? Eventually a family is involved, but it’s done in such a way you’re left sitting there wondering, “Well, now what?”

  4. Who marries a guy after one month? Are you really getting to know someone past their last name and favorite color at this point in time? And clearly you’re not spending that much time together if also during this month, your beau is courting two other women.

The script of the movie was weak throughout the whole production, leaving no element of surprise to the viewer. And every scene of Taylor and a lass was just too unrealistic, making you feel like you are watching an even longer of an already drawn-out Bachelorette episode. Sans the ever-comical suspenders, this movie wouldn’t even cut it on a rainy Sunday.

Hanna Soltys is a green tea drinker and film critic living in Chicago.

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