Softball player Lisa (Witherspoon) gets cut from theUSnational team when her coach believes her to be past her prime (read: over 30 years-old). Lisa is devastated about the sudden loss of the pain purpose to her life, and somewhat uncomfortable that her new boyfriend Matty (Wilson), a famous pitcher for the Washington Nationals, is ambivalent about monogamy and the quintessential player in every sense of the word.
One day, Lisa gets a call from George (Rudd) a business executive who took her phone number from a common friend to ask her out on a blind date. George mumbles and blunders his way through the awkward phone call, she kindly turns him down, and they each go their separate ways.
Then George finds that he's the target of a federal criminal investigation into his company, which is incidentally run by his dad Charles (Nicholson), after which he's promptly fired and left alone to deal with the inevitable disaster and quite possible jail sentence.
Bordering on a nervous breakdown, George calls Lisa up and asks her out for dinner. Lisa accepts, still overwhelmed by the sudden end to her career and in need of someone to talk to. In what could possibly be one of the most awkward scenes ever filmed, George blabbers on uncontrollably until Lisa suggests he shuts up and they eat in silence. Somehow, this long, awkward silence of a meal is supposed to be a defining moment in their burgeoning friendship, yet this is completely lost on the viewer.
This reviewer could go on with the tedious details of this monotonous film, but it's better to not bore the reader as much as the film did. The pace is so incredibly slow that you spend three quarters of the film waiting for some point to be made; and the ending is so ridiculous you can't believe you wasted precious 116 minutes.
How big stars like Witherspoon and Wilson are in this terrible film is beyond our comprehension; other than looking adorably pretty, Witherspoon adds absolutely nothing to her role. Wilson's Matty is so charming and sweet, it's hard to understand why Lisa has any trouble falling for him. If anything, both characters are so one-dimensional and cute to look at, you're pretty sure they're a match made in picture-perfect catalogue heaven.
On the other hand, Rudd's portrayal of the quirky, zany George just doesn't work here. Either Rudd is too talented a comedic actor for this film, or the director failed to harness his wit in the right direction. Somehow, Lisa is supposed to fall in love with his mumbling, neurotic, quasi-stalking self. Equally ridiculous is Nicholson's presence; either this great actor has tax problems or he was drunk throughout the film, because he adds absolutely none of his signature Nicholson charm to the film. Instead, you get an awkward Nicholson who looks as uncomfortable being in this film as this reviewer felt watching it. How Do You Know is best avoided unless you have some drying paint to watch and no other DVDs are available.
About the AuthorStaff Writer for Cairo 360
Original article on:Cairo360
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