“How Do You Know” is a romantic comedy film about a woman who is caught in a love triangle with two men: One is a baseball player and the other is a businessman under indictment for stock fraud. Producer-director-screenwriter James L. Brooks (“Broadcast News” 1987) put together a show that is so long and drawn out (at two hours) that we become bored and do not care what happens to the main characters. Brooks could have easily deleted twenty to thirty minutes to at least make this a watchable movie.
The real tragedy of the film is that the outstanding performances of the lead actors are wasted. These would be Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd. They were given terrible material by Brooks! The supporting cast includes Jack Nicholson, Kathryn Hahn, Dean Norris, John Tormey, Tony Shalhoub, Shelley Conn, Andrew Wilson, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ron McLarty, Lenny Venito, Mark Linn-Baker, Molly Price, Teyonah Parris, and Yuki Matsuzaki. This is Jack Nicholson’s final motion picture to date.
The musical score composed by the venerable Hans Zimmer is one of the few positives of “How Do You Know,” which was a huge box office bomb for Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing.
How Do You Know (2010)
cinema
My Review
“How Do You Know” is a romantic comedy film about a woman who is caught in a love triangle with two men: One is a baseball player and the other is a businessman under indictment for stock fraud. Producer-director-screenwriter James L. Brooks (“Broadcast News” 1987) put together a show that is so long and drawn out (at two hours) that we become bored and do not care what happens to the main characters. Brooks could have easily deleted twenty to thirty minutes to at least make this a watchable movie.
The real tragedy of the film is that the outstanding performances of the lead actors are wasted. These would be Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd. They were given terrible material by Brooks! The supporting cast includes Jack Nicholson, Kathryn Hahn, Dean Norris, John Tormey, Tony Shalhoub, Shelley Conn, Andrew Wilson, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ron McLarty, Lenny Venito, Mark Linn-Baker, Molly Price, Teyonah Parris, and Yuki Matsuzaki. This is Jack Nicholson’s final motion picture to date.
The musical score composed by the venerable Hans Zimmer is one of the few positives of “How Do You Know,” which was a huge box office bomb for Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing.