Is it a total hit or a total disaster? Let's read what Liz thinks...
This film has four A-listers in it, and I usually like movies by all of them, so I had high hopes for it. My parents saw a screening of it the day before, and cautioned me that it was boring, but I didn't listen to them, and so I trekked across town (a few towns, actually) to see it. Alas, the movie was very slow and actually didn't feel like a movie at all, more like various scenes put together, and it definitely did not measure up to my expectations.
Lisa (Reese Witherspoon, "Four Christmases") is a 31 year-old Team USA softball player who just found out that she didn't make this year's team. She's currently kinda/sorta dating Matty (Owen Wilson, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian"), but has recently started hanging out with George (Paul Rudd, "Dinner for Schmucks"), who has just found out that he may be indicted for fraud, even though he's innocent. That's the basic plot of the film, but from there the movie flits off into whatever directions it pleases; it didn't really matter what profession any of the characters were, or even their personalities, really, just that there was two guys and a girl, and the girl will eventually have to choose which of the guys she wants to be with.
No, don't see this film. Even Jack Nicholson ("The Bucket List") couldn't save this movie. Witherspoon, Rudd, and Wilson have all had great movies in the past - I especially liked Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Legally Blonde," and Wilson in "Wedding Crashers" - but this movie was pretty much a train wreck; whether this was the actors' fault or the writers' is up to one's own opinion. There were a few chuckles sprinkled throughout, but they were few and far between, and I spent the majority of the movie checking my watch, as the film clocks in at a lengthy 113 minutes. It's disappointing to see an awful movie with such (usually) great actors in it, but this is unfortunately the case with "How Do You Know."
"How Do You Know" comes to theaters on December 17th.
=========================================================
=========================================================
Liz Parker is a 2009 graduate of the University of Michigan. She currently works as an Assistant Medical Editor for a pathology website. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films