Movie Review How Do You Know?

How Do You Know? (2010) 

Directed by James L. Brooks

Written by James L. Brooks 

Starring Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, JackNicholson

Release Date December 17th, 2010 

Published December 17th, 2010

George (Paul Rudd) is an honest guy, he prides himself on that; too bad for George that his father Charles (Jack Nicholson) is not an honest guy. Worse yet for George, his dad is also his boss and his dishonesty now has George facing the prospect of a healthy prison stay. The how and the why are not well spelled out but we do know George is very likely to be indicted soon.

Lisa (Reese Witherspoon has just gotten some bad news of her own. She's just been cut from the US Women's Softball team and now must enter the real world of jobs and other such things. Cushioning the blow is a frivolous relationship with Matty (Owen Wilson) a multi-millionaire major league ballplayer with monogamy issues. Sure, Matty is no good cheat but he is sweet and surprisingly honest about his proclivities.

These two downtrodden people, George and Lisa stumble over one another amidst the chaos of their lives and after an awful sort of date, she's seeing Matty still, they seem to part ways for good. Ah but this being a romantic comedy we know a chance encounter will reunite them and when that chance comes indeed the romance begins.

Where is all of this going you might wonder, I know I did. Well, keep wondering; veteran writer-director James L. Brooks has a lot of ideas going into the romantic comedy “How Do You Know” but not much of an idea where any of it should go. We know he likes these characters and he and this terrific cast are good at getting us to like these characters but there really isn’t much beyond that likeability.

The trouble comes with Nicholson and Wilson's supporting characters. Both are more colorful and humorous than the two leads. They are the one's driving the story for the two leads who seem only to react to what they do instead of reacting to each other. It's not that Rudd and Witherspoon lack chemistry, they are cute together, rather it's that they aren't as interesting as Nicholson and Wilson who have more to play with in the colorful 'bad guy' roles.

Bad guys are a stretch, they are merely less restrained by the morality of right and wrong. They are roguish and their willingness to ignore the rules is more interesting than Rudd's scrupulous good guy and Witherspoon's needy mess. Unfortunately, even as they are more interesting they also lack emotional heft because their bad deeds are portrayed as charming and carry no real stakes.

”How Do You Know” could use some stakes. There seems to be nothing really on the line for these characters. Sure, George could be going to jail but it never really seems likely that will happen. The payoff of George’s possible indictment is handled in a most unbelievable fashion but it does lead to one of Jack Nicholson’s biggest laughs ever, one he earns with just a flicker of his face.

It’s not that “How Do You Know” is a bad movie, the actor’s involved are far too enjoyable for this to be a bad movie. It’s just that it’s not a very good movie. The story carries no stakes and the narrative is flabby, carrying a lot of unnecessary supporting players who, though almost as charming as the leads, add little to the story. Katherine Hahn is wonderful as Rudd’s assistant/best friend and Mark Linn Baker is funny in an odd way as one of Nicholson’s cronies but the film pauses to give both time that could have been better spent tightening up the main story.

My guess is James L. Brooks fell in love with a lot of the superfluous laughs these characters earn in “How Do You Know” and lost track of the fact that the overall story was weak. Sure, he finds the laughs, he finds the heartfelt moments but they are all just pieces that fail to create a complete puzzle.

I can recommend “How Do You Know” for the less discerning fans of romantic comedies and of these charming actors but you have to keep the expectations low. “How Do You Know” is not as sharp as James L. Brooks’ “Broadcast News” or as endearing as “As Good As It Gets” but it has a number of strong moments, a few big laughs and a cast filled with charmers.

I wanted more from “How Do You Know,” a more satisfying emotional payoff would have been nice, but on deftness alone it gets by for a partial recommendation.

Movie Review: The Simpson's Movie

The Simpsons Movie (2007) 

Directed by David Silverman

Written by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean 

Starring Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Harry Shearer

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 27th, 2007 

20 years in the making, America's funniest TV family is now on the big screen and funnier than ever. The Simpsons, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, have been a dominant force in American pop culture for years now. With the release of their first movie, their place in our cultural history grows in proportion. The Simpsons Movie transcends the small screen not by leaving behind the aspects that made it such a wonderful television enterprise but rather by blowing it up to a new size for a different screen.

That the transfer is so amazingly successful is a testament to the brilliance of the material and the creative minds who have made it so.

The Simpsons Movie finds our hero family in more jeopardy than they have ever faced this side of a Halloween episode. Lake Springfield has been so badly polluted that just one more dumping of chemicals could make it completely toxic. Naturally, that one last dumping would come from Homer Simpson, defying a new city ban on dumping in the lake, Homer drops off a silo full of pig droppings, courtesy of his new pet pig, into the lake and thus sets off an environmental disaster.

The situation in Springfield Lake is so bad that it reaches all the way to Washington D.C where President Arnold Schwarzenegger conspires with the head of the EPA Russ Cargill (the blessed Albert Brooks), to deal with the Springfield problem in ways the President doesn't have to read about. Thus, Springfield is cut off from the outside world by a giant dome dropped over the city. Soon the EPA will launch a plan to destroy the city whole, that is unless the Simpsons can save the day.

That is a very simple description of a plot far more rich than my description. The Simpsons Movie, like the TV show, is rarely about its plot. Rather, the Simpsons thrives on what can be done in and around a particular plot. In this case, the environmental destruction plot offers the opportunity for political humor aimed at both sides of the political spectrum.

Both environmental activists and the political hacks and contractors who thrive on environmental destruction are painted with the same skeptical brush. Admittedly, the creators of The Simpsons Movie have a more liberal perspective, but they do go out of their way to try and be fair and balanced, in the tradition of their sister news network.

The real source of humor in The Simpsons Movie is the Simpson family themselves. The love and exasperation of being a family is what has always been at the heart of America's favorite family and the writers of the Simpsons and now The Simpsons Movie, know how to tap that for big laughs. The deep abiding love the Simpsons have for each other binds them together and opens up wide avenues of humor.

Little moments like Lisa decking Bart after he mocks her crush on an Irish heartthrob or bigger moments like Homer's entreaties to get the family to follow him to a new home in Alaska and the line "I've come to really like you guys", are the kind of familial grace notes that the series has built over the years. There really is nothing they can do that they won't forgive, no matter how outlandish. It is the cartoon's most human and yet broad element.

The Simpsons have made a nearly flawless move from the small screen to the big screen and have begun, what I hope, is a renaissance for america's favorite family. The TV's show's ratings have slipped in the past few years and many long time fans have said the show has lost a step. The Simpsons Movie is proof, that simply isn't the case.

The Simpsons are funnier than ever in The Simpsons Movie. You've got to see it for yourself.