A low-impact romantic comedy-drama from James L. Brooks in which the central characters are strangely disconnected from one another as well as from the audience. Kenneth Turan Dec 16, If, as someone says in one of Brooks' trademark excellent lines, we all feel we're "one small adjustment away from making our lives work," this film is one small adjustment away as well.
Steve Persall Dec 15, A terrible title for a not-much-better movie, missing a grammatically correct question mark and most of the point with romantic comedies. Joe Morgenstern Dec 16, No need to belabor the awfulness of this film, a romantic comedy devoid of romance - instead of chemistry there's the flow of reverse magnetism - and lacking in comic timing, let alone comic content.
User Score. Write a Review. User Reviews. There are a lot of bad reviews for this movie. That surprises me, because I loved it, and I'm not usually into romantic comedies.
What makes this movie good is that it feels like it could really happen. Everybody has crappy days, and this movie is about finding the things in life that Whoa. Everybody has crappy days, and this movie is about finding the things in life that make you want to enjoy it again. The acting is really what makes this movie good. Paul Rudd is an extremely likeable lead, as is Reese Witherspoon. Heck, even Owen Wilson is fun to watch. But Jack Nicholson's character takes the cake.
Most scenes, especially those with Nicholson, made me laugh out loud several times. This really is a sweet and funny movie, and I don't understand why it's getting such bad reviews, especially user reviews. It was wayyy better than Morning Glory. SnoopyStyle 5 October Lisa Reese Witherspoon is a star national softball player who gets cut from the team. Her boyfriend Matty Owen Wilson is big star player ladies man.
George Paul Rudd may get indicted for his father's Jack Nicholson malfeasance. Brooks has created quite a charming little movie. All three lead actors are a affable lot. They make the most likable love triangle. In that way, it's unlike other rom-coms. Owen Wilson is actually lovable if only a little bit clueless. The lack of an EVIL character may be what has thrown most people off. I could see the love triangle going either way. In Arlington, Virginia, the supportive softball player Lisa Reese Witherspoon is cut from the national team by the coach since she is thirty-one years old and has lost her speed.
However, George is committed to his girlfriend and he calls off their date. Out of blue, George receives a subpoena and finds that he is facing a process of security fraud and the company will not give legal support to him. Further, his girlfriend and friends abandon him. Meanwhile Lisa is upset and she dates the successful and womanizer baseball star Matty Reynolds Owen Wilson and sooner she moves to his apartment. When Lisa stumbles with George in the elevator, they have a long conversation and Lisa feels divided between Matty and George.
The bachelor Matty decides to change his behavior and promises a monogamous relationship with Lisa. George learns that his father Charles Jack Nicholson is the responsible for the fraud and he requests his son to assume the responsibility and spends three years in prison to save him. George tells his father that he is in love with Lisa and he will propose her; if she accepts, he will not accept to take the blame for the fraud.
The pointless story is illogical and uninteresting, with Paul Rudd performing a naive executive with the behavior of an intern or student; Reese Witherspoon performing a softball player with an erratic behavior that does not justify the profile of her character; and Owen Wilson completely lost in a dull character.
The worst, there is no chemistry among these characters. The talented Jack Nicholson performs maybe the most ridiculous role of his successful career. My vote is three. Or in that case: I should have. I was warned, but I ignored the negative attention the movie got. I wanted to see for myself.
And Jack Nicholson couldn't be that bad, now could it? Well it's not Jack who ruins the movie. Owen "Playboy" Wilsons character is completely ridiculous and sadly not funny at all. Paul Rudd whom I like and I think is a funny comedian, is reduced to puppy eyes and dialogue that must have hurt bad, when he was trying to say it.
Then again they all need money. Watching Reese W. But she is. Just not in this one. The tone is completely wrong, there is almost no comedy, the romantic "value" if you can call it that is even dismissed by women who watch it and the kitsch factor reaches "I want to puke" levels with both genders.
With so much talent at hand, you never would have guessed they could've gone completely wrong. So that is actually an achievement in itself. Very nicely entertaining romantic comedy, with a few novel ideas. TxMike 9 April The title is a reference to some of the important decisions we make in life, how do we know what we want to do, or when we are in love, or when we meet the right person.
Olympics, world championships, that level softball star. That is pretty much her life. But we hear the coach talking about her losing a step in speed, and maybe it is time to get a younger player in her place.
Paul Rudd as George is in a quite different place in his life. He is a businessman, runs the company his father built. He is with someone but things aren't going well and he is thinking of breaking it off. He and Lisa are destined for their paths to cross. There is a third person in the triangle, Owen Wilson as wealthy but goofy baseball star pitcher Matty. He really wants Lisa to be his, but poor Matty who has a kind heart is really relationship challenged.
We see early that he is not likely the person for Lisa, and intelligent an reasonably sensitive type. Jack Nicholson is George's dad, Charles. When George gets a letter that an investigation will begin on him regarding some fraud allegations, we begin to suspect dad is really the one behind the possible illegal operations.
The first half of the movie comes across as a bit choppy, both my wife and I wondered where it was leading. But as it developed we found it reasonably enjoyable and entertaining. I generally don't like Owen Wilson but here he creates a very nice role for the movie. And, it does turn out that dad was responsible for some bribes in Egypt, as a "way to get business done", something George had no knowledge of.
George and dad eventually discuss this, would it be better for George to take the rap and spend maybe 2 or 3 years in jail, or for dad to possibly get 20? George says he will do it, IF he doesn't have a love interest in his life. In the last scene, where George and Lisa finally profess love for each other, dad observes from a balcony above the street, smiles and resigns himself to what has to be done.
As for a romantic comedy, then "How Do You Know" was fairly slow and lacked some of that special ingredient to make it stand out from the many, many others in the same genre. Sure the movie had an impressive list of cast, and there was some good chemistry between Reese Witherspoon playing Lisa and Paul Rudd playing George.
And they worked well together on the screen. Also Owen Wilson playing Matty was well cast for that particular role. Most impressively was seeing Jack Nicholson playing Charles in this movie, he truly is a diverse actor.
The story in "How Do You Know" is basically right out of the romantic comedy cookbook; two people meet and eventually get to find love, and of course need to get through the obstacles along the way.
Pretty textbook material there, so don't expect any major new-thinking in the movie. But still, the story was enjoyable, though at times very slow moving. There are other romantic comedies that have more meat on it, so to speak. I didn't mention Jack Nicholson here, because he is better in other types of movies.
I was entertained throughout the movie, despite the long patches of endless dragging on. However, I can't say that I will be putting the movie on a second time. For me, it just doesn't have that much appeal. How Do You Know? Many of these romantic comedies seem to have one thing in common.
Two people who meet by chance fall in love surrounded by an environment which threatens them-either financially, socially, mentally, or ethically. This picture is no different. Reese Witherspoon is your American girl cut from her baseball team and the girlfriend of Owen Wilson, who is at his sarcastic golly gee best here.
He is certainly sympathetic as the baseball player who has plenty of curves on his mind. Paul Rudd is wonderful as the corporate boyfriend looking to be set up by his father, Jack Nicholson, for the latter's illegal wrong-doing. Rudd's college professor girlfriend wants to suspend their relationship until things can be worked out. It's the same story of Rudd and Witherspoon finding each other, falling for one another, while their personal lives are in turmoil.
How would I have known it's so bad? Gordon 14 April This film is about a female athlete who faces a romantic dilemma, as she has to choose between an egocentric baseball star, and a caring guy whose life is a mess. From the stellar cast, one would naturally assume "How Do You Know" to be a warm, fun and romantic film. It turns out that it has none of these qualities.
There is not one good line in the film. The actors speak in cryptic ways, which is either is indecipherable or is plain bad. There is no spark between Reese Witherspoon with either Paul Rudd or Owen Wilson, most of the time they are so detached from each other that it seems they are talking but not communicating. And do we really have to watch Reese Witherspoon hysterically changing her mind twenty times in the film, such as leaving then staying, speaking then not speaking, getting on the bus then getting off the bus?
It is not funny, it's simply annoying. The movie centers on the story of a passionate athlete who finds herself romantically torn between a narcissistic baseball star and a straight-laced businessman. It was directed, written and produced by James L.
Lisa Witherspoon has sports been the definition of her life. Then, in the blink of an eye, she's cut from the team due to age and decline of skills. With her identity in crisis as she attempts to regain her footing in life,she begins dating Matty Wilson ,a Major League Baseball pitcher and notorious womanizer. Meanwhile, terminally honest businessman George Rudd finds himself on the road to financial ruin or worse after being wrongly implicated in a financial crime. As he struggles to clear his name and reconcile his turbulent relationship with his father, Charles Nicholson ;a chance meeting with Lisa at the lowest point in both of their lives leaves him optimistic that things may work out after all.
I expected this movie to be better. The writer-director is James L. So let's start with Nicholson. Brooks hasn't given him much to work with.
Here he plays a conniving tycoon who doesn't deserve his son's loyalty. It's a heavy role, and there's little to lighten it. In his best roles, Jack always seems to be getting away with something. He is here, too, but it's not funny. We like to identify with his onscreen sins, and this is a rare time when Nicholson is simply a creep.
The best-written and funniest role in the film is for Owen Wilson, as the pro pitcher. You know how his characters can have that ingratiating niceness, that solicitude for you while they're serving themselves? Here he plays a man tone-deaf to the feelings of women and clueless about his own behavior. But he's so nice about it that Lisa agrees to move in, and that provides an opening for what every actress should master, the scene where she repacks her bags and marches out. Rudd's George is very likable.
This is the wrong time for him to fall in love. Top cast Edit. Reese Witherspoon Lisa as Lisa. Paul Rudd George as George. Owen Wilson Matty as Matty. Jack Nicholson Charles as Charles. Kathryn Hahn Annie as Annie. Mark Linn-Baker Ron as Ron. Lenny Venito Al as Al. Shelley Conn Terry as Terry. John Tormey Doorman as Doorman. Teyonah Parris Riva as Riva. Tony Shalhoub Psychiatrist as Psychiatrist. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit.
Star softball player, Lisa, has just been cut from the national team; Scholarly business man, George, has just been indicted from his father's company.
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