There's a scene in James L. Brooks' best-film-by-far, 1987's "Broadcast News," in which a TV news anchor (William Hurt) describes what it's like to have a sharp producer (Holly Hunter) whispering cues to him through his earpiece. He's ecstatic about the way she feeds him the information he needs at exactly the right moment, comparing her rhythm and intuition to great sex.
That feeling of perfect synchronicity is the exact opposite of what's happening in Brooks' new film, "How Do You Know." The movie's off-ness starts with the inexplicable lack of a question mark in its title and proceeds from there, with three of the four leads showing a surprising inability to bring engaging complexity to clumsily written, largely unsympathetic characters.
Even the actor left standing, Paul Rudd, survives only by accepting that his character, a sincere and good man struggling in a fundamentally un-good world, will not make use of the offhandedly caustic wit that earned him leading-man roles in the first place. It's as if Albert Brooks, the third-wheel underdog in "Broadcast News," had been given a script with no whining in it.
Rudd plays George, an exec in a company founded by his father (Jack Nicholson), who, at the story's outset, learns he is (wrongly) under investigation for securities fraud. George's self-involved girlfriend quickly breaks up with him, his co-workers treat him like an Ebola carrier and even Dad goes weird, pushing him out into the cold while simultaneously trying to act the part of a concerned parent.
George crosses paths with Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a past-her-prime jock (bear with me) who has just been cut from the national softball team. Suffering from a "what's next?" crisis, Lisa is open to some dumb rationalizations - like the ones that lead to her moving in with a millionaire baseball player (Owen Wilson) whose one-night stands are so routine he keeps a cabinet stocked with pink morning-after outfits.
The nice guy-versus-flake romantic triangle is the movie's most obvious attempt at recapturing the "Broadcast News" vibe, and as far as it goes the story line is meaty enough to stand on its own. But in his dialogue, Brooks strains so hard to explicate his characters' emotional logic that he sounds like a collegiate playwright who hasn't yet realized that good actors can carry much of that weight for him.
Brooks the director has too much faith in Brooks the writer, and seems to be encouraging Witherspoon and Wilson to dampen their natural charm to play people who aren't as emotionally intelligent as they should be.
A helping of emotional stupidity might be the only way to keep our heroine with Mr. Wrong for the nearly two hours she spends onscreen being just friends with Mr. Right, but plenty of viewers will have a much harder time being patient with this charade than the long-suffering Rudd.
'How Do You Know'
Our grade: C
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Running Time: 121 min
MPAA rating: PG-13
Release Date: Dec 17, 2010
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