HOW DO YOU KNOW (2010) - REVIEW

James L. Brooks has always been a master at making romantic comedies. His best, and Oscar-winning (or nominated) movies are "Terms of Endearment" (1983), "Broadcast News" (1987), and "As Good as it Gets" (1997). What these three movies also have in common is Jack Nicholson. In fact, working with Brooks is how Nicholson won two of his three Academy Awards. "How Do You Know" is James L. Brooks' return to the rom-com genre he helped define. The results are mixed, though, and even Jack Nicholson's presence can't elevate this material.

The movie opens with a glimpse in the life of Lisa (Reese Witherspoon). She's a softball player in the US national team and she's nothing short of a legend. The problem is, she's getting too old for the game, so she gets kicked off the team. This throws her into a state of confusion. She has to reconsider the present, rethink her future and find new directions. One of these possible directions is baseball player Matty Reynolds (Owen Wilson). They engage in a sort of sex-only relationship, but, it's not long before Matty actually falls in love with her. Or, at least he thinks it's love. To me it seemed more like a bit of an ego-driven affair. The second of these possible directions manifests itself in the form of young executive George Madison (Paul Rudd). George is in a bit of a mess too. He finds himself the target of a federal investigation accusing the company he works for of whatever wrong dealings companies do these days. It's not entirely clear what it is, but we assume it's bad enough to warrant a federal investigation. The company is run by George's father, Charles (Jack Nicholson), an unsimpathetic businessman who generates some heavy father-son issues, and, as we find out later, he might even be connected to the the corporate malfeasance accusations. Lisa finds herself torn between George and Matty. With the balance of love upset, she must decide who it is she cares for and if she is even capable of settling down.

They really do talk too much in this movie.

As you see, the ways of romance are more twisted and interconnected than a "Saw" movie. Most of the movie deals with Lisa's pendulation between Matty, a shallow ego-driven man who loves her, but is not fully commited to her, and George, who is modest and caring, but has some complicated issues. Lisa has some issues of her own she has to deal with, but the movie seems more interested in playing the love triangle angle rather than getting us to really understand any of these characters. They drop some insight into their feelings now and then, but their personalities are as elusive as the idea of Lisa playing softball, which we never really see her do on-screen. I remember reading Roger Ebert's review and he actually sort of complained about the fact that we never see her play. And he's right. It's not just that we don't see her play, but that the movie never really offers us any real characters. They're just rom-com characters whose personal complications and personality twitches are only excuses for moments of comedy that sometimes are funny, but most of the time just completely miss their mark.

The actors do all the hard work. Witherspoon, Wilson and Rudd effortlessly work the material in a way that can only be described as heroic. They do what they can to endow their characters with credibility, but the screenplay doesn't help them much. In fact, it only seems to hinder them with pointless meandering dialogue. You almost find it hard to believe that people actually talk this way. You almost expect to hear a laughter tape turned on out of thin air. Jack Nicholson isn't in this for very long, either, which is a shame. The little time he does spend in this movie, though, is used to little effect, which is even more of a shame.

Overall, this is a mildly enjoyable movie with a charismatic cast. It requires some tolerance towards its handling of rom-com elements and its overblown screenplay, but it mostly works on a basic level, even if it's somewhat overlong. I'm still having trouble grasping the idea of a $120M budget for a movie like this. I'm not sure where all that money went to. There are no visual effects, other than the surreal writing. I know of action movies that get by with less money. I think this is clear case of self-indulgence and, honestly, it shows.