HOW DO YOU KNOW 2.3***



Somewhere hidden in this 2010 comedy is a small independent film about flawed characters trying to take charge of their lives when they really never had the control to begin with. That more intimate movie is the one I wanted to see, but veteran director/screenwriter James L. Brooks missed the boat on this one… not by much but enough for it to be a lost opportunity. That's not to say the movie isn't smart, insightful, and funny in its scattershot way, but it's just too unwieldy and too long .

The story focuses on 31-year-old Lisa Jorgenson(Reese Witherspoon), a popular career softball player who suddenly gets cut from the Team USA roster. Cast adrift from her one passion in life, she starts dating Matty Reynolds(Owen Wilson), a self-indulgent, womanizing pro baseball player. In this tenuous situation comes George Madison,(Paul Rudd) a financial executive whose world comes crashing down when he becomes the target of a criminal investigation for corporate malfeasance at a company run by his conniving tycoon father Charles Madison(Jack Niholson). George's shallow girlfriend dumps him, so he calls Lisa(a mutual friend of both puts him on to her) for what turns out to be a disastrous blind date. At the same time, they haphazardly bond over their respective misfortunes just as Matty tries to acquit himself of his selfish, womanizing ways. This romantic triangle is set up for further complications and an interesting ending.

The stars perform admirably under the circumstances but it is as if each actor is working alone and never talked to the others. Much worse, Director Brooks( also the director of classic films: “Broadcast News” and “Terms of Endearment”) seems to have no control over the cast and fails to bring any has coherence to the story. Too cute, too star-studded and entirely too long, “How Do You Know” is a jocks’ Rom-Com that offers proof that Brooks has lost his fastball .

Clark