Review - How Do You Know

It’s Hard To Know

Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is a motivated and driven woman. She is a professional softball player that has a past with the US Olympic team. This year is different. The team is going younger and Lisa isn’t as quick or as strong as the youth movement the new coach is moving towards.

She is dating Matty (Owen Wilson). He is a hot pitcher for the Washington Nationals and knows what he wants. What he wants is Lisa, oh and he knows how to relate that fact, even if he doesn’t have an ounce of tact in his system.

This is all complicated a man named George (Paul Rudd). He’s an executive that is about to be indicted. Though he’s done nothing wrong, it’s the company his father has put him in charge of that is in trouble. It could be that his father (Jack Nicholson) has some involvement in the problems, or it could be he knows nothing.

Different individuals with different paths all searching for the answer to the question; how do you know?

Director James L. Brooks has made us laugh for years with a real life backdrop. Even his “bad” films that others dislike, I have tended to enjoy. How Do You Know is a tough film as it seems to have lost some of the regular sensibilities that you are used to finding.

Reese Witherspoon is likable, and I found myself coming away from this film with even more of an appreciation for everything she does. She plays a woman who is motivated and driven, using motivational words, phrases and techniques. Her ability to slip into her role as a champion softball player, with party side is amazingly fun.

Co-star Paul Rudd is perfectly cast as the nice guy who is caught in the middle of things. It’s a role he has gotten used to, and does it well. Owen Wilson gets to take his Fockers character and add a bit of attitude to it to create Matty. Sometimes it felt that it just wasn’t real enough. I almost wanted a bit more attitude out of his character, but you couldn’t help but “like” him and see the side that Lisa saw in him.

I know there were a number of laughs in this film. I know I like Reese Witherspoon more than I did before I saw this film. But ultimately, did I like this movie? It’s hard to know.

B- / C+

How Do You Know
Columbia Pictures

Director: James L. Brooks
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language.
Runtime: 116 minutes.