How Do You Know

Year: 2010

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Brooks

Review

as far as romantic comedies go, this one isn’t too bad. james brooks is historically fairly reliable and he turns in another good enough picture here. reese witherspoon and paul rudd both are cast well for their parts and do a workman-like job with the roles. it’s kind of a throwback to some of the 30s stuff in a way. not in terms of quality or writing style, but in terms of the characters and their relationship arc. witherspoon is more more empowered here than some of the dames in the earlier films and rudd is relatively impotent (can’t get out from under his dad’s influence, is under indictment, career spiraling out of control). so, it’s a more enlightened version of the story, but not necessarily better. it has all the a-list stars and crew (witherspoon, rudd, wilson, brooks, zimmer, kaminski, etc.), but doesn’t achieve that level of success.

Watched in theater