How Do You Know
When James L. Brooks works on a film, it is, at the very least, a minor event. Best known for producing TV shows like “Taxi,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and a little animated show called “The Simpsons,” Brooks’s films have been just as accomplished in their own way: he won Oscars for “Terms of Endearment”; made a stinging classic in “Broadcast News”; and directed Oscar-winning performances out of Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in “As Good as It Gets.” Sure, he misfired with the almost-musical “I’ll Do Anything” and the Adam Sandler ensemble film “Spanglish,” but even then you can’t blame him for not trying something new.
With “How Do You Know,” there’s not really anything new being attempted. That’s not really a bad thing, however; Brooks still has a perceptive eye for human nature and a golden ear for memorable dialogue. (If the film was truly succeeding at the box office, I could imagine the phrase, “You’re an ethical monster,” catching on. I know I’m going to try and make it happen.) His writing isn’t as solid as it once was, but he still understands his characters and knows how to cast them.
Take Reese Witherspoon as a 30-something softball player who’s just been cut despite her value as a leader. Even before winning an Oscar for “Walk the Line,” Witherspoon was an actress for whom, upon seeing her, the audience had instant affection (see “Election,” “Legally Blonde,” and “Cruel Intentions”). Even in the ditsiest characters, Witherspoon projects intelligence and a wicked wit. Here, Brooks has softened the latter, played to the former, and (most importantly) made us care about someone who had the life she wanted and then had it stripped away. That’s not really an easy thing to accomplish (especially with athletes like Reese’s Lisa), but we feel her pain and respond to her desire to try and keep moving forward in the face of adversity. It’s a wonderful role that Witherspoon plays beautifully.
In the end, she’s the film’s main character. It’s her character we meet first, and it’s through her character we meet Owen Wilson’s Matty (a hot-shot baseball player for the Nationals whose typical bachelor behavior doesn’t work quite as expected with Lisa) and Paul Rudd’s George, who has just been named in a federal investigation for illegal behavior that we learn involves his father (played by Jack Nicholson, not exactly at his best but still enjoyable to watch). The film follows a lot of the standard rom-com cliches (which is not something one can say about a lot of Brooks films), but we follow along with the film because of Brooks’s writing always wry and smart) and the main performances (not just Reese, but also Wilson and Rudd, who do some of their best work here). “How Do You Know” doesn’t hit the comic highs of Brooks’s best work on film or TV, but even at his most “meh”-worthy, the award-winner still knows how to push all the right emotional buttons. He does so here as well.
