For Hollywood, babies are like alcohol -- to paraphrase one Homer J. Simpson, they are the solution to, and the cause of, all of life's problems. Be it a comedy or drama, thriller or horror film, the desperate narrative frequently turns to biology as a catch-all cure for what clearly ails it. In the new Katherine Heigl/Josh Duhamel RomComDram Life as We Know It, an infant becomes the basis for a contrived bit of opposites attracting (and then repelling, and then getting back together in the end, naturally). How these two unmarried single stereotypes become instant parents is certainly manufactured. How the resulting movie micromanages their emotions is equally artificial.
Holly Berenson (Heigl) is a bakery owner and entrepreneur with big plans for her small Atlanta shop. Eric Messer (Duhamel) is an arrested adolescent male who works as a TV technical director for the local NBA team. After a disaster blind date back in 2007, the duo have become unlikely allies, acting as best friends for married couple Alison (Christina Hendricks) and Peter (Hayes MacArthur). They are even godparents to the pair's newborn baby, Sophie. When tragedy strikes, Holly and Eric are left as guardians to the orphaned child and must live under the same roof in order to care for her. You can probably see where this is going: Holly is a Type-A control freak, while Eric is a slovenly slacker lothario, and they still can't stand each other. But when a handsome pediatrician (Josh Lucas) catches Holly's eye, things go from complicated to chaotic.
For the most part, Life as We Know It (a title as perfunctory as the film it adorns) is innocuous and bland. It's only mildly insulting to supposedly smart audiences while giving those obsessed with toddlers enough puke and poop to keep their post-natal Pavlovian needs in check. As yet another example of the staleness inherent in the guy/girl get together genre, it's so busy retracing old cinematic steps that it can't find the time or the desire to try and discover new ones. For their part, all the acting is adequate. Heigl is a tad less strident than usual while Lucas does most of his acting via his perfect pearly whites. It's the tank-topped Duhamel that gets the biggest challenge. As the prototypical post-modern "dude", he can bed hop with the best of them, and yet, on command, call up the waterworks and celebrate his sensitivity.
Yet the most problematic element of Life as We Know It is not the lack of genuine laughs or realistic plot mechanics -- it's the failure to plumb real emotions. There are some here, buried beneath the sitcom-style punchlines and nutty nosy Central Casting neighbors. But whenever the film stumbles upon anything that feels honest or open, it seems to recognize this "flaw" and immediately jumps into (attempted) joke mode. As viewers, we want such truth, and we don't mind seeing the obstacles and the confrontations. That's why it's so disappointing when the film attempts to sugarcoat them with pathetic pratfalls and silly sight gags. Such sudden tonal shifts definitely cause a kind of entertainment whiplash.
And for all that, Life as We Know It is slightly above average -- especially in a year of You Again and Letters to Juliet, when every up and coming Hollywood actress must traipse out their take on the chick flick formula to be considered commercially viable. It doesn't suffocate you with stupidity, and it accidentally falls into some moments of real, heartfelt sentiment. Sure, you have to overcome glaringly obvious moments of gratuitous diaper changing and music montage tot wrangling, but for the most part, the price you pay is minimal and manageable.
Holly Berenson (Heigl) is a bakery owner and entrepreneur with big plans for her small Atlanta shop. Eric Messer (Duhamel) is an arrested adolescent male who works as a TV technical director for the local NBA team. After a disaster blind date back in 2007, the duo have become unlikely allies, acting as best friends for married couple Alison (Christina Hendricks) and Peter (Hayes MacArthur). They are even godparents to the pair's newborn baby, Sophie. When tragedy strikes, Holly and Eric are left as guardians to the orphaned child and must live under the same roof in order to care for her. You can probably see where this is going: Holly is a Type-A control freak, while Eric is a slovenly slacker lothario, and they still can't stand each other. But when a handsome pediatrician (Josh Lucas) catches Holly's eye, things go from complicated to chaotic.
For the most part, Life as We Know It (a title as perfunctory as the film it adorns) is innocuous and bland. It's only mildly insulting to supposedly smart audiences while giving those obsessed with toddlers enough puke and poop to keep their post-natal Pavlovian needs in check. As yet another example of the staleness inherent in the guy/girl get together genre, it's so busy retracing old cinematic steps that it can't find the time or the desire to try and discover new ones. For their part, all the acting is adequate. Heigl is a tad less strident than usual while Lucas does most of his acting via his perfect pearly whites. It's the tank-topped Duhamel that gets the biggest challenge. As the prototypical post-modern "dude", he can bed hop with the best of them, and yet, on command, call up the waterworks and celebrate his sensitivity.
Yet the most problematic element of Life as We Know It is not the lack of genuine laughs or realistic plot mechanics -- it's the failure to plumb real emotions. There are some here, buried beneath the sitcom-style punchlines and nutty nosy Central Casting neighbors. But whenever the film stumbles upon anything that feels honest or open, it seems to recognize this "flaw" and immediately jumps into (attempted) joke mode. As viewers, we want such truth, and we don't mind seeing the obstacles and the confrontations. That's why it's so disappointing when the film attempts to sugarcoat them with pathetic pratfalls and silly sight gags. Such sudden tonal shifts definitely cause a kind of entertainment whiplash.
And for all that, Life as We Know It is slightly above average -- especially in a year of You Again and Letters to Juliet, when every up and coming Hollywood actress must traipse out their take on the chick flick formula to be considered commercially viable. It doesn't suffocate you with stupidity, and it accidentally falls into some moments of real, heartfelt sentiment. Sure, you have to overcome glaringly obvious moments of gratuitous diaper changing and music montage tot wrangling, but for the most part, the price you pay is minimal and manageable.
