the washington post friday, december 17, 2010 l
24 EZ
HOWDOYOUKNOW
Sweetly imperfect
BY ANN HORNADAY With “How Do You Know,” writer-direc-
tor James L. Brooks presents viewers with yet another edgy, self-conscious heroine, the kind of “difficult”womanhehasmadea career of gently lampooning and slyly championing in “Terms of Endearment,” “BroadcastNews,” “AsGood as ItGets” and “Spanglish.”Here, the hang-ups, eccentric- ities and ingratiating little tics belong to Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a professional softball player who, as the movie opens, is in the process of getting cut from her team. On second thought, Lisa really isn’t the
typical Brooks heroine here; that title belongs to George (Paul Rudd), a financial executive who, as Lisa is getting axed, finds out he’s being indicted for securities fraud. Sensitive, scrupulouslyhonestandpainful- ly self-aware,George is the kind ofguywho, when offered the consolation that he’s being blamed for someone else’s malfea- sance, quotes recent legislation proving he’s still responsible for the crime. A friend sets up George and Lisa on a blind date, and the night of their first
encounter happens to follow the day when each receives the worst news of their lives. Only a filmmaker of Brooks’s distinct sensi- bility could conceive of a meet-cute where- in the couple in question spend an entire meal not talking. But that’s just the kind of offbeat drummer “How Do You Know” marches to. And, despite occasional hic- cups in pacing and tone, it’s a parade well worth joining, if only for those dashes of observational wit and rueful wisdom that have become the filmmaker’s signature. Like “Broadcast News,” “How Do You
Know” is set inWashington and pivots on a romantic triangle. WhileGeorge convinces himself he has fallen in love with Lisa, she thinks nothing more of their dinner and pursues a romance with baseball starMat- ty (Owen Wilson). Most of the laugh-out- loud gags in “HowDo YouKnow” belong to the blond, pleasantlydimMatty, channeled by Wilson with the blithe disposition and flawless timing of Judy Holliday. When Lisa says she owes him an apology after an argument in which he was clearly in the wrong, he lights up like a golden retriever whohas been handed the silkpumphe just mangled. “Anapology?” he asks with sunny incredulity. “You may bemy dream girl!” Less amusing is Jack Nicholson, who
seems to be doing his best Lewis Black impression as George’s venal father, Charles. But he rises to the occasion in the film’s climactic scene, set in a hospital maternity ward, which is played in Brooks’s familiar key of screwball-slash-
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Softball player Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) and financial executiveGeorge (PaulRudd) meet on the day when each receives the worst news of their lives.
sentimental comedy. “How Do You Know” may not be perfect — Witherspoon’s recessive blandness doesn’t do justice to Lisa’s complications, and the story some- how manages to be forced and underdevel- oped at the same time—but it’s the kind of movie that succeeds as a culmination of momentsthat ring true and sweet. Just one case in point: Rudd’s face when Lisa tells
George a piece of not terribly welcome news. Heartbreaking. Adorable. Sad. Sub- lime.
hornadaya@washpost.com rr½
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains sexual content and strong profanity. 120 minutes.
YOGIBEAR
Hey, Boo Boo! Zzzzzzzz . . .
BY DAN KOIS An uninspired studio product that
demands as little from the audience as it did from its writers, directors and actors, the 3-D“Yogi Bear”mixes anodyne live-ac- tion nature with animated animal hijinks. The result? As is so often the case, the satirical newspaper the Onion’s sight-un- seen take is as incisive as any reviewcould hope to be: “ ‘Yogi Bear’Movie Introduces Boring Cartoon Character ToNewGenera- tion,” a recent headline proclaimed. Of course Eric Brevig’s film, attempting
to make Jellystone Park’s resident pic-a- nic basket thief more fun, ticks the boxes on some Warner Bros. memo titled “Things Kids Today Like.” Fart jokes? Check. 3-Dspit takes? Check. Yogi shaking his ursine rump to “Baby Got Back”? Dear Lord, check. An engaging storyline or jokes that go
deeper than the hoary lines parents remember (or, y’know, don’t) from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of their child- hood? That’s hard work, buddy, and, canny filmmakers know, essentially irrele- vant to the box-office potential of a family movie dropped in the marketplace once frigidweather and school vacations set in. Yogi is a computer-animated brown bear who walks on his hind legs, wears a
to hear about Yogi’s schemes, of course.He just wants Yogi to act like a bear — rather than water-ski, steal vending machines and build a contrabulous fabtraption of a flying machine for high-tech picnic-grab- bing. (The Baskit Nabber 2000, as it’s called, has no seat belts, and its safety information card is just a hand-drawn picture of passengers screaming.) The one real bright spot in the film’s
cast is Anna Faris, who plays Rachel, a documentarian who arrives at Jellystone to film its rare subspecies of walking, talking bears. Faris, long a critics’-favorite comedian, is best known for playing dumb (in “The House Bunny” and “Observe and Report”), but in “Yogi Bear” she trans- forms her standard cluelessness into sweet science-nerd awkwardness. Of course, Ranger Smith, Rachel, Yogi
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
DanAykroyd is the voice behind the incorrigible Yogi Bear and TomCavanagh is Ranger Smith, who tries to keep him in line.
tie and hat, and speaks with the voice of Dan Aykroyd (channeling the late, legend- ary voice actor Daws Butler’s familiar tones). Yogi’s pint-size life partner, Boo Boo, is voiced by Justin Timberlake, who displays neither his golden pipes nor any of the spark he brought to his role in “The Social Network.” Mostly, Timberlake’s
mushmouthed Boo Boo just plays the nervous scold to Yogi’s free spirit. The film’s plot has Yogi and Boo Boo
helping Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) defend Jellystone froma rapaciousmayor (the funny Andrew Daly), who wants to sell off the park’s logging rights to bail out the city budget. The ranger doesn’t want
and Boo Boo team up to foil the mayor’s plans, delivering a timely lesson on mu- nicipal budget short-sightedness — and a timeless one on staying true to yourself, or whatever. While children younger than 8 should enjoy Yogi’s antics, everyone older than 8—pre-tweens, tweens, teens, young adults, parents, grandparents, great- grandparents and adult bears — will just be grateful that, at 80minutes, “YogiBear” is shorter than the average barely-there familymovie.
weekend@washpost.com
Kois is a freelance reviewer. r½
PG. At area theaters. Contains mild rude humor. 80 minutes.
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