Review

Apparently, You Can't.

Jacob Sahms

James L. Brooks has brought the movie-viewing world such hits as Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, and Spanglish which moved us, made us think, and pushed our romanticized buttons. But in his latest, How Do You Know, he takes the skills and star power of Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd, blends them together into some kind of stew, and puts the pot on simmer for about a half hour too long. What's left? A bunch of scraps, a few good laughs, and a couple of stars who never quite show off their full flavor.

Anything with Witherspoon will get my wife's attention, and I've grown in admiration for Rudd and his late-breaking roles (Knocked Up, Forty-Year-Old Virgin, Role Models, etc.) so we figured it would make for a decent Christmas movie out before dinner. Within twenty minutes of the movie, I turned to her and complained that I didn't like either of the two "options" for Witherspoon's Lisa, that is George (Rudd) or Mattie (Wilson). Neither one quite matches her in charisma, and she's left playing an oaf that we didn't quite believe her to be even when her boyfriend in Legally Blonde tried to tell her she was. But the film does make you laugh out loud enough to forget that the chemistry is strained from the get-go.

George is a down-on-his-luck businessman who seems decent enough but suffers under his overbearing father (Nicholson), and remains friendless except for his father's secretary (the as-always-excellent Kathryn Hahn); Mattie is a successful closer for the Washington Nationals who has a full set of "take home" gear for each of the women he sleeps with; Lisa is a former national softball team player deemed too old for the current team (who seems based on Jenny Finch). But George's financial predicament seems too complicated, Wilson's Mattie never seems to actually have anything that would attract Lisa but she stays with him, and Lisa never finds meaning outside of what we see her slumming through her relationship with Mattie. It seems destined for greatness but it just never works.

When true "love" is found, it seems like there's nothing that could keep Lisa and her "winner" together; he's too invested in her and she hardly knows him. He makes a complete life-making decision solely based on whether or not she follows him out of a party, and there's no equality in the relationship. I think that's where I went, "Now, wait a minute." Sure, we can suspend all sort of reality and buy into cute moments, but if we're going to buy "true love," don't the people have to be in it together? What we're left with isn't real love, it's puppy love on one side and "I guess you're the best I can get" on the other.

Having seen this and The Tourist in back-to-back weeks, I'll easily encourage you to try the Depp-Jolie connection. There's more passion there, and you can actually tell what they have in common.