Plot: What’s it about?
I find it somewhat ironic that the title of this movie is “How Do You Know” when I would have liked to have known how utterly bad this was before I invested two hours of my time in it. Please pardon the run-on sentence. Now before I continue with my tirade, let’s examine some of the facts, shall we? On paper, the movie looks good. James L. Brooks has only directed a half dozen movies in his career (this being the sixth), though his other films include “Broadcast News”, “Terms of Endearment” and “As Good as it Gets.” Those aren’t exactly bad films with one winning Best Picture (“Terms of Endearment”). The lead quartet of actors in this film aren’t exactly no-names, either. Jack Nicholson, whose two Academy Awards come from his collaborations with Brooks, and Reese Witherspoon who picked up a statue for “Walk the Line” a few years back. Then you’ve got Paul Rudd and the always dependable Owen Wilson who, despite playing the same character in every movie he’s in, does a fine job. So you’ve got James L. Brooks, an Academy-Award winning Director/Producer and Writer, a cast of highly sought-after actors and a big studio backing you. What could go wrong?
Everything. I usually try to reserve judgment until after I’ve at least given a film half an hour, but after about ten minutes of this snooze fest, I could tell it was going to be a long two hours. However I was sent this Blu-ray, so I’ll do my best to outline the plot as best I can. We meet Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a former world class softball player who learns that she’s just been cut from the national team. Softball has been her life, so she’s in a state of disarray. She meets Matty (Owen Wilson), a pitcher for the Washington Nationals, who sleeps with all sorts of women but justifies it because he’s a “sensitive” man. She’s also randomly set up with George (Paul Rudd), a finance man who’s being indicted and his father (Jack Nicholson) isn’t able to help. Add to this we get some scenes with a pregnant legal clerk who can’t or won’t divulge any information to help out George and we’ve got ourselves a mess. I suppose the question being asked is “who will Lisa end up with?” Well who do you think? The womanizing baseball player or the guy next door who’s willing to go to jail for his Dad?
My main problem with the movie was the dialogue, or lack thereof. The lines felt forced and disjointed. It’s like being on a bad date and saying something just for the sake of speaking to break the awkward silence. In many ways it felt like a play with the actors waiting on their cue lines to deliver their next line of dialogue. I don’t or can’t really fault the actors as we’ve seen them in other roles and they’ve all done wonderfully there, so I think it might just have been a comedy of errors. What really surprises me is that writer and director James L. Brooks came up with this whole thing. Brooks is responsible for getting and keeping “The Simpsons” (my favorite television show of the last two decades) on the air, his films have all been great but something was seriously missing here. I really don’t know what else to say. Yes, even directors have bad movies, but I just don’t think that anyone saw this train wreck coming. To top it off the budget for this movie was $120 million dollars and it grossed only $30 of that back. I have to assume the money went to the actors’ salaries as nothing else stood out as being too terribly memorable. I’d advise you pass on this if at all possible.
Video: How does it look?
The movie is presented in a very nice-looking 1.85:1 AVC HD transfer. The movie was filmed in Washington D.C. (or a place that looked exactly like it), so we do get a few familiar sights. Contrast is outstanding and detail is such that we can even see some wrinkles in Witherspoon’s smile. Now that’s detail! The palette is warm and natural and it looks good overall. Black levels are amazing as well as we see the rain-soaked streets of D.C. against the actors’. This is the epitome of a big budget studio movie and it’s a shame that some other, better films can’t look this good.
Audio: How does it sound?
The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack didn’t stand out as being particularly memorable and it seemed like there were a lot of dead spots in the film. Maybe that’s what bothered me with the dialogue is that there was nothing in the background, just dead silence. Still, there are a few instances in which the surrounds become engaged, but not many. The score is a bit muted at times, but is typical of a romantic comedy. There’s nothing really more to say here, it’s not a bad soundtrack, just not that great either.
Supplements: What are the extras?
If you’re one of those few that liked this movie, there’s actually a pretty good sampling of supplements here for you. We start off with an audio commentary by writer/director James L. Brooks. No it’s not him saying “I’m sorry” for two hours, but some details of the cast and the ratings. Admittedly I didn’t make it all the way through the track, but if it ended anything like the movie then I’d advise you avoid this as well. We do get some select scenes with commentary by Owen Wilson (ten in all) but it’s just more of the same. We get another set of deleted scenes that total nearly thirty minutes as well as the film’s alternate ending. We also get a blooper reel and “Extra Innings” which is your typical EPK type of featurette. Owners of the Blu-ray will find even more deleted scenes as well as “The George”, a visual recipe for Paul Rudd’s character’s drink in the movie. The movie is also BD-Live enhanced, so if your player is, then you’ll be able to peruse some other Sony titles.
