Film info

• Title How Do You Know
• Director James L. Brooks
• Year 2010
• Run time 2hrs 1m
• Genres Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Tagline How do you know it's love?

When everything she's ever known is suddenly taken from her, Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) begins a fling with Matty (Owen Wilson), a major league baseball player and self-centered ladies man. Before their relationship takes off, Lisa meets up with George (Paul Rudd) a straight-arrow businessman facing his own serious issues, both with his father (Jack Nicholson) and the law. Just when everything seems to be falling apart it doesn't.

Background Info

I am keen to watch any film that involves Paul Rudd because I love him. Not that big a fan of Ms Reese, although she’s never done anything specific to offend. The trailer seemed intriguing, although I wasn’t sure it was going to be the normal kind of rom-com.

Live Blog

00:05:49 - She drinks Guinness. Mr C will approve. ** ** 00:06:53 - She’s in Mistresses! Blimey.** ** 00:08:13 - “You have all the signs of a handful.”** ** 00:10:43 - I do like the idea of a drawer of toothbrushes though. There’s nothing like a new toothbrush.** **00:13:59 - Paul Rudd’s dad is Jack Nicholson. Huh.** ** 00:15:26 - “Drivel does not get to finish. Drivel gets interrupted.”** **00:19:26 - No Macs in this film. All Sony’s so far.** ** 00:22:10 - I like Paul far too much. **** 00:25:18 - “I’m not sure how to further identify myself.” Hehehe!** ** 00:29:14 - He ran! **** 00:31:36 - They are both having the worst day ever. Great time for a first date. I suppose if you’ve seen each other at your worst, it can only get better!** ** 00:35:01 - Even just grinning like an idiot he is funny. Bah. 00:38:11 - Retainer and escrow are all words I don’t really know.** ** 00:39:49 - “Figure out what you want and learn to ask for it.” If it was that easy, he’d be out of a job.** **00:45:02 - Owen Wilson looks old in this film.** ** 00:48:16 - He’s got one of my Endless Pools! Want!** **00:53:21 - This must be the weirdest relationship someone can have with their assistant.** **00:56:13 - And there he was, wanting to make a good impression. 01:00:51 - Not sure I’ve ever uttered this sentence before but: yay for the doorman! 01:07:08 - His smaller flat is bigger than any I’ve lived in. 01:11:29 - You don’t get points for asking about points. 01:20:30 - For a minute, I thought she was going to storm out in bare feet. That would be some proper anger if you can’t pause to slip on some shoes.** **01:28:27 - Her instinct is to punch. That’s funny. 01:31:57 - Now that WOULD have been a bad day. 01:37:03 - Re-enactment… it’s never as good the second time. 01:40:33 - You wait ages for a bus… 01:48:51 - I love that she opens her presents slowly and carefully. I do that too!** **

Conclusions

I just couldn’t figure this one out. It wasn’t too smooshy, so I figured it must be more of a comedy than a romantic comedy, but even then, it wasn’t crazy funny. Paul Rudd was brilliant, and I did like some of the conversations between Witherspoon and Wilson. The peripheral people were nowhere near as good. It almost felt like they were all given a bit of a skit - the dad going on about stuff, the assistant wanting to tell him things - but they just felt long and didn’t work for me.

I really think if Paul hadn’t been in it, I would have had to turn it off midway through. He really held together what was a strange story with odd characters.

Rating: 2/5

Rating: 2 / 5