When movies ask who, what, when, where, why or how?
If James L. Brooks, a most literate moviemaker, chooses to title his new romantic comedy “How Do You Know,” sans punctuation, there’s probably a good reason.
According to director Robert Zemeckis, there’s an old Hollywood superstition that films with a question mark in the title do badly at the box office. Hence, his “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
But there’s no shortage of movies that have tested that taboo. Here are a dozen:
“Dude, Where’s My Car?”
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”
“Are We There Yet?”
“Shall We Dance?”
“What’s the Worst That Could Happen?”
“Did You Hear About the Morgans?”
“Who’s Harry Crumb?”
“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
“Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”
“What About Bob?”
“Casual Sex?”
And carrying the superstition flaunting to its logical extreme, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) lists five movies that are simply titled “?”, one that is titled “?????” and one emphatic film that’s named “?!”.
- Dennis King
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