Life as we know it sophie9/11/2023 It's all a bit pat, but it's cute, especially considering the state of the genre. Heigl exhibits some vulnerability, Duhamel some charm and the baby some life lessons for singletons. But television producer Greg Berlanti ("Everwood," "Brothers & Sisters") has spun, if not a silk purse, at least a serviceable bag out of humdrum ingredients, creating a piece of fluffy entertainment that's not a chore to sit through. The film is set against the type of lifestyle wealth usually seen in Nancy Meyer movies and not part of most people's experience. Industry rating: PG-13 for sexual material, language and some drug content.Ian Deitchman & Kristin Rusk Robinson take an implausible yet unoriginal idea and put it through the usual romantic comedy tropes while Katherine Heigl, who has been a brittle film lead to date, stars. A baby makes us grow up and changes our lives and as this film points out, that’s not just a diaper joke.Ĭast: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas As in “Knocked Up,” a baby makes all the difference in the world.Īnd as uneven as it is, “Life as We Know It” still goes down like comic comfort food, especially for anybody who’s ever dealt with parenthood. She’s not the gorgeous romantic victim (“27 Dresses,””The Ugly Truth”). But the weight of the material suits Heigl’s skills. It lumbers along (they could cut 15 minutes) and the plot takes far too many predictable turns. Melissa McCarthy kills as the plump, bossy, drawling neighbor (one of the few Southern accents in this Atlanta tale). Josh Lucas is the new man Holly would prefer in her life. THAT’S what bitter looks like.”ĭuhamel gets most of the funny lines, Heigl is assigned the job of carrying off the scenes with the most heart.Ī few supporting players score. The unspeaking infant is a witness to the Holly-Messer bickering - “Hey Sophie, look. These two people who haven’t committed, haven’t fully grown up, suddenly are given responsibilities by friends who are not there to see to it that they succeed.ĭirty diapers? “It’s like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in there!” The they-can’t-get-along comedy resumes, now with diaper jokes, projectile vomiting, drop-the-baby gags, that magical babysitter who knows how to calm children (“The baby whisperer.”) and such. They spend the next couple of years meeting, awkwardly, at Alison and Peter’s wedding and assorted parties, including their daughter’s first birthday.ĭirector Greg Berlanti, who cut his teeth as a TV writer, show creator, producer and director, deftly turns this film on a dime a couple of times - giving us decent tear-jerking moments, beginning with the one where the two not-friends mourn the loss of this young couple with a baby. The date was a fiasco - entirely his doing, seeing as how he’s selfish, childish, boorish and rude. That’s the blind date Alison set Holly up on with Messer, a pal of Alison’s beau, Peter (Hayes MacArthur). Even though Alison was responsible for “the Messer debacle of 2007.” She runs a hip bakery and is utterly devoted to her college pal, Alison (Christina Hendricks of “Mad Men”). Holly (Heigl) likes her high heels HIGH and her life organized. Messer (Duhamel) is a womanizing, motorcycle riding TV director for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. “Life As We Know It” is about two seriously mismatched people - once hurled together on a disastrous blind date - suddenly bonded together for life when their mutual friends die and designate them as the people who will raise their infant daughter. And credit the script, which gives her more to play than your average “Ugly Truth.” And she, in turn, brings out his sweet side. As he has done in many a less worthy romantic comedy, he amplifies her charm. Uneven and sloppily sentimental, “Life as We Know It” is still the best Katherine Heigl comedy since “Knocked Up.”Ĭredit her co-star, Josh Duhamel for that.
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