Susan Granger’s review of “How Do You Know” (Columbia Pictures/Sony)
It’s particularly disappointing when an Oscar-winning writer/director like James L. Brooks (“As Good As It Gets,” “Broadcast News,” “Terms of Endearment”) misfires, but that’s the case with this contemporary love triangle.
Although Lisa Jorgenson (Reese Witherspoon) is acknowledged by her teammates as the “glue that holds the U.S. National Softball team together,” she fails to make the final cut – and this 31 year-old professional athlete has never given a thought to the future. On the same day, muddled George Madison (Paul Rudd) discovers that he’s under federal indictment for stock fraud at the investment firm owned by his father Charles (Jack Nicholson). So their ‘blind date’ is naturally a disaster. Besides, Lisa’s still having an affair with super-stud Matty (Owen Wilson), a self-absorbed Washington Nationals pitcher. But, wait, there’s more to come.
While these characters are interesting, their emotional connections are frayed and fragmented, leaving all four floundering, seemingly in search of a plot in this complicated dramedy. One supposes that Lisa and George are meant to be together, but Matty is so much more appealing – and idiosyncratic Owen Wilson is so irresistibly charismatic – that her choice somehow disappoints. In addition, George’s stalwart, fiercely loyal and very pregnant assistant Annie (Kathryn Hahn) steals every scene she’s in, especially when her boyfriend (Lenny Venito) appears at her hospital bed in the maternity ward.
Ever since Reese Witherspoon won an Academy Award for “Walk the Line,” she’s wavered between drama and comedy, delivering only a few memorable moments in “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Four Christmases.” And Paul Rudd (“Dinner for Schmucks,” “I Love You, Man”) is- too much of a sad sack milquetoast to be the man who wins her heart.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony/Columbia paid $50 for talent: $15 million to Witherspoon, $12 million to Nicholson, $10 million to Wilson and $3 million to Rudd – on a $120 million budget.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “How Do You Know” fouls out with a 4, leaving one with the nagging question: Who cares?
