How do you Know

When I would come across this one on my list of movies, I always had to remind myself that this was the one with Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson. The title was just forgettable, but after watching it, the title helped me better understand the film. I was ready to write about how you couldn't feel any chemistry between Reese and Owen or Reese and Paul Rudd, I didn't believe she was in love with either of them at any point of the movie and well, that's not quite the rom-com formula! She's supposed to be head-over-heels for both and have a really hard decision to make! At the end, when Paul Rudd says something to the effect of "You love me too" and Reese just kind of gives him a "maybe" look. It was then that I got it (maybe). You weren't supposed to feel the fireworks love in this one, it was supposed to be the uncertain love, the "how do you know it's love" love.

In the beginning, Owen Wilson asks his buddies how do you know if you're in love, the reply was kind of vulgar, but that's not the point. The thing was was that I thought it was perfectly normal for Owen to question if he was in love, but I just assumed that if Reese was moving in with this guy she MUST be in love. I kind of liked the "what is love, and am I in it?" struggle, it was done so subtly with Reese's character that I didn't really notice until the end. The whole time I was waiting for fireworks and professions of love, when sometimes love is just a whisper.

I love me some Jack Nicholson, that man is pushing 74 this year, and he still has it. I would have liked to have seen more of him, and for him to get some memorable lines, but such is life. I have never been a big fan of Owen Wilson; I don't find him charming or funny, and to be honest, his nose is distracting. But he was as tolerable as possible in this one. I like Paul Rudd in everything (I guess even in Dinner for Schmucks) for no apparent reason, and Reese is such a cutie. A special shout-out to Kathryn Hahn as Annie the assisstant, she is just wonderful, and deserves to be in more movies.

I was a little disappointed with how the legal stuff Paul Rudd's character is involved in gets resolved at the end. There are some major implications for his decision, and it's just taken kind of lightly. I understand that the movie makers probably didn't want to bog the movie down with what was going to happen to Jack afterwards, but it seems like just a cop-out, and that the legal problems were just a vessel to push the storyline along, and not a real problem they ever cared to resolve.

A refreshingly different take on the romantic comedy.