(2010) In baseball when the game's on the line in the ninth inning with the team ahead by one or two runs, the manager brings in from the bullpen his closer, a fresh pitcher armed with high-octane velocity, to eliminate the threat from batters of the opposition. That fireman for the Washington Nationals is Matty (Owen Wilson), a cocky $14-million pitcher who hurls a 95-mile-an-hour fastball, trying to preserve a one-run lead, while in the batter's box waits George Madison (Paul Rudd), a weak hitter with two out and a runner on base.

Both men want to score with Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), a 31-year-old blonde, a bit past her athletic prime, recently cut from the USA Softball team after a stellar career as an Olympian. She's been seeing (his luxury apartment is well-supplied with casual clothing for his female guests) and eventually living with Matty - in whom she notices a streak of sweetness - who's trying (recognizing in her the possibility of the woman of his dreams, the one he wants to take home from the assembly line of "anonymous sex") to overcome his insensitivity and immaturity.

On the other hand, George, an honest though naïve business executive, is under investigation and eventual indictment by the Justice Department for illegal transactions in his father's company. His father Charles (Jack Nicholson) regards his son with contempt, while George's office assistant Annie (Kathryn Hahn), in her ninth month of unwedded pregnancy, knows more than she can tell her boss (without committing a felony herself), whom she admires for his integrity.

Unemployed and low on money, George puts everything on the line, selling everything he owns to hire a high-powered defense attorney because the company's board of directors (on which Charles serves) has voted not to cover his legal expenses. His girlfriend Terry also leaves him, saying she wants to press the pause button.

Feeling low herself, Lisa ("Most girls' plan is to meet a guy, love, have a baby, but I don't know if I have what it takes for everybody's regular plan") briefly visits with a psychiatrist who gives her the advice to learn what it is she wants and then figure out how to get it. Her happenstance relationship with George (beginning with a restaurant dinner consumed in silence on the worst day of their lives followed by his father's coincidentally residing in the same exclusive complex as Matty), whom she finds silly ("a chic magnet"), gradually develops.

How do you know, asks director/writer James L. Brooks's triangle of romantic comedy drawn off a baseball diamond, when you're in love? What I'd also like to know is how this movie received a PG-13 rating after Charles repeatedly rants with a four-letter expletive. (I was under the impression that "a motion picture's single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive," is the limit.) Further, is there a movie with more cellphone interruptions and conversations than in this one? A little hint as to the outcome: the Nats, who finished in the cellar of the NL East Division, have yet to be a serious contender.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2011 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .