How Do You Know

admin | January 28, 2011 | Comments (0)

DIR/ WRI: James L. Brooks • PRO: Julie Ansell, James L. Brooks, Laurence Mark, Paula Weinstein • DOP: Janusz Kaminski • ED: Richard Marks, Tracey Wadmore-Smith • DES: Jeannine Claudia Oppewall • CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson

There is so much to like about this movie that it feels like a disservice to some of the wonderful separate elements pronouncing the ‘whole’ a bit flat. But so it is. With the potential to be a perfect romantic comedy, it instead delivers a rather stale serving of predictability where might have stood a feast of chuckles and emotion. That it stands above the normal fodder of ‘chickflick’ banality is down, pure and simple, to wonderful acting from the eternally likeable Reese Witherspoon, and perfectly placed leading-man goofiness, expertly handled by Paul Rudd. Even Owen Wilson’s dumb-blonde ‘himbo’, though done to death at this stage, lifts the movie above comedy car-crash, and adds weight to an otherwise humdrum script.

Witherspoon plays Lisa, a professional baseball player, who is dating successful fellow-baseballer and all-round player Matty (Wilson), but his thoughtlessness leaves her in a position to accept a blind date from George (Rudd). Their subsequent dinner occurs on the day that Lisa is dropped from the US team for her advancing years, and George is indicted by the US government for crimes he hasn’t committed. Their predictably disastrous date is, however, dealt with quite gently and realistically, and the spark between them is undeniable. In their subsequent friendship they both find ways of dealing with these pivotal moments in their lives – Lisa in attempting a meaningful relationship with Matty, and George in repairing his own relationship with his father (Jack Nicholson), who may have gotten him into all this trouble. Despite the triteness of the story, it is imbued with character and comedy by the actors involved. Rudd, in particular, is outstanding and unbelievably likeable as George, willingly twisting his handsome face into comic foolishness, and proving that his leading-man credentials are hard-earned and well-deserved. I challenge anyone not to find Witherspoon charming – in this, or any, movie – and she gives Lisa a glowing depth not always visible in the lacklustre script. Until the final act, it feels almost like a perfect rom-com, but there is really only so much the actors involved can do to save what eventually feels like a sinking ship. Its denouement leaves no bitter-sweet taste, a lá The Graduate, from which it seems to take inspiration, nor does it give a sappy wrap-up – instead falling somewhere in the middle.

James L. Brooks has been making every effort to appear hit-and-miss, and How Do You Know is another half-step downwards in this campaign. The posters are hyping the movie as from the creator of As Good as it Gets, but despite the repeat presence of Nicholson, it can’t quite reach that magic. Finding it hard to reduce down from melodrama or boil up from pure rom-com, the lack of focus causes a dilution of both sub-genres. The upshot of this is a nice idea, with delightful component parts, producing a movie that lacks enough substance to truly make it a worthy romantic comedy.

Sarah Griffin

Rated 12A (see IFCO website for details)
How Do You Know is released on 28th January 2011

How Do You Know – Official Website