How Do You Know (12A) **Directed by: James L. Brooks
Starring: Reece Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, Jack Nicholson
The latest all-star soap from Terms of Endearment helmsman Brooks offers the sight of likable performers doing their best to rescue a script that bears precious little relation to reality. The title refers to the romantic quandary faced by Witherspoon’s Lisa now her professional softball career (!) is coming to an end. One option: nice but dim jock Matty (Wilson), whose bedroom expertise Lisa has to share with several other women. The other: sensitive listener George (Rudd), an eminent catch distracted by the fraud charges hovering over him and his corrupt father (a hammy Nicholson).
Witherspoon is the obvious winner, letting her hair down and showing how radiant, even sexy, she can be when not playing professional try-hards – and unlike the mirthless likes of The Ugly Truth, it’s a romcom with actual chuckles, if not laughs. It’s just a pity Brooks isn’t above phony narrative crises and dialogue too often indistinguishable from the Post-It platitudes tacked to Lisa’s bathroom mirror. More creative energy has gone into furnishing these characters’ apartments than devising credible emotional situations to put them in; the result’s wholly undemanding, and best saved for a long-haul flight.
How Do You Know opens in cinemas nationwide today.
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