How Do You Know (2010)

James L Brooks, now 70, returns to film making with How Do You Know, a film that cost a whooping $120 million dollars to make which is certainly quite a bit of money for a rom-com. Most of the cash went on the director and it's all star cast which include Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson. The problem is the film made $8 Million in it's first week in the U.S and went pretty much unnoticed over here, the main reason being that the film isn't very good.....at all.

Lucy (Witherspoon) is part of a U.S softball team when she is surprisingly cut from the team, she is dating arrogant and dumb baseball player Matty (Owen Wilson) who is so stupid that the audience can't seriously imagine Lucy sticking with him, no matter how desperate she is. Witherspoon is great to watch and is good to see her back on are screens after some time off. George (Rudd) is a guy who's going through a tough time after being suspended from his job and dumped by his girlfriend. He meets Lucy on a blind date and together they try and sort out their lives. Of course in typical Rom-com fashion they start to fall for each other. Rudd has his moments in this film but most of the time come across irritating and boring. You would have to wonder if it's best for Lucy to have some time alone instead of messing with these fools.

Then there's Mr Jack Nicholson one of the greatest actors of his generation who's been in such classic films as Chinatown, Batman and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As always you'd expect good things from him...they don't appear in this film. Jack plays George's Dad Charles who is somehow involved in his son's investigation of fraud. Jack is OK in this film but is rarely given any screen time and you can only imagine agreeing to be in this film and as a favour to the director and the massive paycheck he got. At one time Bill Murray was meant to play the role of the father, but I don't think this would have made the role any better or worse purely because the character is under written and basically not very good, especially for the calibre of actors attached to the role. The whole film feels like it knows as much about love as we do. So what's the point.

By no means is this awful but you'd expect so much better from the people involved. The film doesn't seem to have any substance which becomes very tiresome very quickly. Witherspoon saves this film from being a total mess as she gives a spirited performance throughout. It's just a shame the movie isn't as good as her.