How Do You Know
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 17, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
17
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 17, 2010
A bit slow to get started, and it's nowhere near as funny as "The Hangover." But it'll make you smile. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyDec 16, 2010
It is a keenly observed movie about loss of identity and finding love, in which Brooks serves up funny-ouch humor with slapstick heartbreak. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 16, 2010
It's relaxed without being sloppy, or patronizing, and in particular Witherspoon and Lemmon - sorry, make that Rudd - bring charm to burn. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle OrangeDec 15, 2010
There are a couple of scenes of pure, sentimental genius, as well as appealingly boggled turns by Rudd and Wilson. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissDec 20, 2010
Yeah, well, I still like the film. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 17, 2010
In essence, the movie is an ungainly but irresistible romantic-triangle comedy built around Rudd, Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson, with Nicholson rambling around its periphery like a demonic bear, part comic relief and part distraction. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 16, 2010
The result is highly entertaining but hardly ranks with the director's best work; a dramatic subplot involving the money guy and his corrupt father (a disengaged Jack Nicholson) never gains traction. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla TaylorDec 14, 2010
Not that How Do You Know doesn't have its moments of shamelessly entertaining shtick, much of it furnished by Nicholson (watch for a very funny visual gag about his proclivities for much younger women) and by Wilson as Lisa's current squeeze. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 17, 2010
Best when it's morphing into seriousness. Too often the comic bits seem like sops to the audience. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 23, 2010
It's the kind of movie that succeeds as a culmination of moments that ring true and sweet. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 17, 2010
How do you know when a romantic comedy just isn't working? Key indicators are that your audience doesn't get goose bumps in the inevitable third-act reunion. They don't get misty-eyed. In short, they don't really care. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 16, 2010
The problem with the film has little to do with the central triangle, which is engaging enough in a formula-driven way, but with the myriad uninteresting subplots that dot the cinematic landscape and have the unfortunate effect of padding the proceedings to the point of unwieldiness. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 16, 2010
The experiment in the new movie is this: What happens when his Type A's are forced out of their comfort zones? If only Brooks had managed to leave his. How Do You Know feels like a collection of scenarios he's done better. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 16, 2010
The movie is all surface and trades on fortune-cookie wisdom. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensDec 17, 2010
Brooks has given us the rare contemporary rom-com that's by turns (if intermittently) thoughtful and funny, and that doesn't feel focus-grouped, cynical, misogynist, or mean. It seems ungenerous not to cut such a generous movie a break. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 15, 2010
From its bland title to its fair-to-middlin' story, mediocre is the word that fits How Do You Know perfectly. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 15, 2010
How Do You Know asks really good questions but doesn't so much answer them as toss the ball from player to player until the clock runs out. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDec 17, 2010
Brooks knew how to engineer a well-crafted script. Yet on the evidence here – a stuttering two-hour outing bereft of any rhythm, a bunch of scenes in search of a movie – he's apparently forgotten. Read full review
50
NPRScott TobiasDec 17, 2010
Shapeless and overlong, How Do You Know unfolds in a heap of unprocessed ideas and emotions, as if Brooks started production two or three drafts too early. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 16, 2010
If, as someone says in one of Brooks' trademark excellent lines, we all feel we're "one small adjustment away from making our lives work," this film is one small adjustment away as well. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 16, 2010
How Do You Know must have started with a good idea that got lost in the translation from concept to screen. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 15, 2010
Nothing heats up. The movie doesn't lead us, it simply stays in step. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 15, 2010
Too cute, too star-studded and entirely too long. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 15, 2010
A low-impact romantic comedy-drama from James L. Brooks in which the central characters are strangely disconnected from one another as well as from the audience. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 13, 2010
The sad part is that How Do You Know is nowhere near as dumb as it looks. A couple of comic set pieces are inspired-or would be, if Brooks's timing weren't off. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 16, 2010
With a self-plagiarizing premise, lifeless performances and a clunky-to-say-the-least screenplay, this star-studded flop is one of 2010's most egregious wastes of cinematic talent. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinDec 16, 2010
That's How Do You Know in a nutshell: preposterous characters lurching through painfully contrived scenarios. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 15, 2010
A terrible title for a not-much-better movie, missing a grammatically correct question mark and most of the point with romantic comedies. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesDec 17, 2010
It's hard, as a viewer, not to shudder in tandem with Lisa – this isn't a love match, it's two would-be motivational coaches swapping slogans. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 14, 2010
Listen to the rhythms of "Broadcast News" - from Holly Hunter's daily crying jags to William Hurt's cock-of-the walk patter - and you'll hear how romantic comedy can approach an art form, a roundelay that requires the ear of a conductor. How Do You Know, James L. Brooks's latest, has such tone-deaf passages that it feels made by a totally different man. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerDec 14, 2010
Even Reese Witherspoon, whose adorable scrunch-face projects the romantic travails of lovelorn women everywhere, looks unsure of herself. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickDec 17, 2010
This rambling, overproduced, tone-deaf melange of romance, comedy and drama is only slightly more engaging than Brooks' other feature this century, the unfortunate Adam Sandler vehicle "Spanglish" (2004). Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 28, 2010
Bad movie! Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 16, 2010
An airless, sometimes distressingly mirthless comedy. Read full review
30
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 15, 2010
This wrong-headed dramedy peddles forced warm-fuzziness and insincere sentiment on the backs of an all-star cast. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 16, 2010
The film is confusing and awkwardly timed, and it drags. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 16, 2010
Brooks' shallow screenplay feels half-finished, and he never compensates with additional guidance or directorial flair. So all his actors are forced to flail about ineffectually. Apparently, none of them read the script in advance. Because surely then they'd have known to take a pass. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 16, 2010
No need to belabor the awfulness of this film, a romantic comedy devoid of romance - instead of chemistry there's the flow of reverse magnetism - and lacking in comic timing, let alone comic content. Read full review
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