A hanging statement rather than a question, the unpunctuated title of James L. Brooks’s How Do You Know is an apt reflection of the film’s amble toward a theory, in lieu of an answer. The subject, needless to say, is love: What’s the secret? Is there an algorithm yet? How, when one meets a new person, is it possible to separate emotional temperatures — where circumstance, experience, and need have led each of you to be in that exact moment — and access what true baseline there might be between you? And if it is possible, is it useful? Abandoning analysis for instinct hardly seems like the thing: The rhetoric of instant connections — clicking, chemistry, sparks — feels random and unreliable; the more acquisitive approach — involving checklists, potential, dealbreakers — is bloodless and overdetermined. To be a vampire, and at least have a few clear guidelines about letting the right one in!
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REVIEW: How Do You Know Has Moments of Genius — But Too Many Cell Phones
