Mandy Moore’s latest film venture is the prime definition of a chick flick. Containing all of the essential ingredients for the classic women’s movie: Romantic relationships, divorce, engagement, tragic death, pregnancy, sister-bonding, mother/daughter talks and, of course, a wedding and a baby at the end, “How to Deal” asks just as its title suggests — Just how is our heroine going deal with all of this?

Aside from the insubstantial plotline, this film proves to be a big step up from most other movies of its genre and quite an improvement from “A Walk To Remember,” Moore’s breakthrough movie.

Moore’s acting ability is quite impressive. She fits into her role of Halley Martin, an independent teenage girl overly cautious of falling in love. This is due mostly in part to her family and friends experiencing a variety of unfortunate side effects caused by heartache.

Her mom, played by Allison Janney (“American Beauty”) is extremely bitter about her recent divorce from Halley’s Dad (Peter Gallagher). Her sister, Ashley (Mary Catherine Garrison) is engaged to a guy with whom she is constantly fighting with. Her best friend, Scarlett (Alexandra Holden) got pregnant by her boyfriend — who has just died. And to top it all off, Halley’s father elopes with a blonde bimbo.

Halley cannot be swayed toward love — even by the irresistibly cute bad boy Macon Forester (Trent Ford), who continues to pursue her throughout the movie.

Despite the numerous storylines this movie takes on, there are many timely comedic interruptions. For instance, Halley’s grandmother (Nina Foch) continuously gets caught smoking marijuana. There’s just something funny about an old lady smoking a joint.

“How To Deal” is based on two novels by Sarah Dessen, meshing to create a storyline that lacks direction. The movie constantly bounces back and forth between serious events and light-hearted events. The consistently random occurrences in this film causes the plot to become weak and the storyline to become choppy.

After seeing “A Walk To Remember,” I wasn’t prepared to like “How To Deal.” However, after experiencing all the right ingredients in the recipe for a chick flick, I couldn’t help but enjoy myself just a little.