So, the new drama: while Mauricio and his wife were on a plane flying back here, her mother got told by doctors that, oh, btw, it's time to start hospice. So Mom got asked to take his wife BACK to the airport at 4 in the morning today. I'm expecting her to be asleep for quite awhile under those circumstances. Of course, I just typed that and then my iTouch went off to remind me of the stupid meeting I'd be in right now if I was at work... DAMMIT.

Anyway... before that went down, we eventually got out of the house to see Tangled and How Do You Know. Now everyone but me has probably already seen the first one of those (I figured eh, might as well wait until the break to do it...), but seriously, that is an adorably awesome movie. Sure, I clearly have fetishes for long hair and towers and girls who have mother issues and girls who do crafts (seriously, that girl has most of the same hobbies as I do up there), but besides that, it's totally charming and wow, Zachary Levi knocks it out of the park in particular. I am amused at how his character looks like him... though Rapunzel looks more like Mandy Moore towards the end as well. Gorgeous movie.

As for How Do You Know, I doubt too many people are seeing that one, so I'll go on about it for longer. (Note: I will be spoiling the plot after this paragraph is done, if you care.) It's a strange movie. I'm not sure if I can describe how strange it is exactly, but it reminded me of watching Elizabethtown years ago. That is a movie that is just bizarre (note: main character tries to off himself via exercise bike for designing a really expensive shoe failure, he's the ONLY guy on an airplane flight, and Kristen Dunst stalks him for no reason... it goes on), and for about half of this movie I had the same sort of strange feeling going on. Even though this one has more of a plot, and the strangeness makes sense in plot context. In this case, I think everyone is so discombobulated that it comes off as spacey.

It's the story of two people who have had giant bombs dropped upon them and what they do afterwards. Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is an Olympic softball player who gets cut from the team because they got a new male coach that hates her for being 31 and thus "0.3 percent slower." WTF? Which is quite the blow for her to have to deal with the whole "alternate plan for after softball" thing. Especially since unlike her teammates, she never really wanted to go make a baby. Anyhoo, she kind of falls into/jumps into a relationship with Matty (Owen Wilson), a super cheerful Washington Nationals player. Matty is rather adorable for being a total manwhore. After their first night together, he brings her a smoothie. Then she heads into the bathroom, where he has a WIDE selection of toothbrushes. Oh, and he tells her she doesn't have to do the walk of shame home in her dress because he has clothes! He has a lot of sets of pink Washington Naturals sweats stashed in the bathroom, with sizes ranging from extra small to extra large. Aw, Matty, you are such a sweet and thoughtful little manwhore! Matty falls for Lisa-- as much as a guy like that can, anyway-- and you kind of root for him even though you know better. He's like a giant puppy.

Our other main character in tons of shit is poor George (Paul Rudd, super adorable in this movie, mostly because he's kind of in a state of slaphappy a lot), a guy who got raised by his dad (Jack Nicholson) to join the family business. Except now he's being heavily investigated by the government AND HE HAS NO EFFING IDEA WHY. He gets immediately fired and nobody from the company is allowed to talk to him. This is clearly driving Annie, his very pregnant and loyal assistant, up the wall. In the first scene you see her in, she appears to be going into labor... but really, she's just about to take a swing at his dad. Note this. She needs the job for the baby and whatnot, but she knows what's going on and desperately wants to tell him and can't (and he won't let her). Well, you can pretty much guess just because of Jack Nicholson playing his dad what's going on (yes, this is a spoiler, but nobody casts Jack Nicholson as a character that isn't secretly up to something bad)-- Dad's the one that did it, Dad already has a record and will go to jail for life if he gets busted, and can't George just do 2-3 years worth of time for dear old Dad?

Now, eventually in this movie, George and Lisa meet, have a super awkward couple of conversations, and by the time they actually have a date, George is so schizzed out that Lisa finally tells him that they are going to eat in silence. This actually really perks up George's day and he gets schmoopy for Lisa thereafter... for her, it takes awhile. They run into each other again (his dad and Matty live in the same building) and eventually forge a strange yet cute friendship. And eventually George decides to make his "will I go to prison for Dad" decision on whether or not he gets anywhere with Lisa at her birthday party tonight. No pressure there!

And it ends on George giving Lisa a can of Play-Doh (Matty gave her an "engaged to be engaged" watch) because you're only a step away from finding a new way to do things. And well, it's a romantic comedy. It's amusing how his dad is watching them from his balcony and he gets a brief look of "Aw, he scored!", followed by "Oh crap, now I'm going to jail."

So... worth seeing, I think, though it is kinda strange.

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