Review: 'How Do You Know' isn't worth your time and money

Film: How Do You Know (U/A)
Director: James L Brooks
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson
Rating: **
 
Lisa Jorgenson (Witherspoon) is a US national softball player who gets cut off the team as she crosses the dreaded age 30 mark. While figuring out what to do next, Lisa ends up in a relationship with Matty Reynolds (Wilson), a Major League Basketball player, a Casanova with hardly any intention to go further than is asked of him. George Madison (Rudd) is in a soup professionally and has been recently dumped. Lisa and George end up having a meal together, and in spite of the chaos in his life, George instantly falls for Lisa.

A tango for three follows as Lisa continues to be with Matty while using George’s shoulder to cry on, but who will she choose? In the interim, quirky characters are thrown in with some clever dialogues to keep the audience enthralled. Both George’s dad (Nicholson) and his secretary (Kahn) are enjoyable to watch but fail to bring a zing to what is a rather bland story.

The dialogue is clever and induces a lot of chuckles. The plot as such is half-baked; we don’t know what George’s investigation is all about and it’s a loose end that remains untied. A huge letdown considering that the director is an acclaimed screenwriter who wrote films like As Good As It Gets and Broadcast News.

The performances are the saving grace of the film. Rudd is absolutely loveable as a sincere guy smitten with Lisa and does a great job of bringing to life what seems like a bland character on paper.

Wilson is, well, as usual — delicious and with great comic timing, which makes him endearing as the empty-headed athlete. The director has some fabulous actors at his disposal and yet he barely does justice to them. It seems like a sincere romantic comedy at the onset, but How Do You Know falls flat on its face through the second half. 

By the way, the boom mike makes an appearance so many times that it could well be a character in the film — a character that ruins your already insignificant experience of watching this film.

My verdict: Give this one a miss, unless you absolutely have to watch a film and don’t have any other options.