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
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
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