Reese's Pieces

I really dislike Reese Witherspoon. She gives such joyless performance that I always think, if she seems to be veyr unhappy playing her role, then why should I even bother with her?  I kind of knew I wouldn't like her in "How Do You Know," and I frankly don't even know why I saw this movie. I guess I was bored, and the screening time matched my schedule so I tried my luck. Besides, it also stars Paul Rudd, who is easy on the eyes. How bad could it be?  Well, pretty bad, it turns out. I think I would put this film as one of the worst movies I have seen this year. 


The story is pretty formulaic, girl chooses from good boy vs. better boy, and if the screenplay was more robust, and the acting was more charming, it would have been passable. But my main problem lies with Reese herself - she just comes off annoying, and feeling entitled that I did not really care for her character even a tiny bit. Owen Wilson has the more showy role - he gets the better lines - but his blonde carefree boy routine has gotten tiresome, for me at least. And Paul Rudd does try hard, even incorporating slapstick, but his performance falls flat, probably by osmosis. Even Jack Nicholson seems bored by the whole proceedings - it seems like all his scenes were done in a day. It's too long, too, clocking in at more than two hours. I can think of a dozen things I could have done instead of sitting through this movie. I heard Reese got 15 Million to star in this, and unfortunately it did not open well. I hope producers now realize she is not worth the money. Maybe, if I am lucky, she will just go away.