Yet another effort to turn out a money-making romantic comedy (psst – hey guys? There will never be another When Harry Met Sally), Life As We Know It should be re-titled “Life As We Know It if Everyone Looked Perfect and Had Amazing Houses and Jobs”.
*ahem*
So get this, Katherine Heigl (as Holly) and Josh Duhamel (as Messer) play polar opposites who hate each other but get stuck raising their best friends’ baby together after a car accident and then GUESS WHAT HAPPENS. Actually, you don’t need to guess, as that part is all in the preview.
After brief deliberation, they determine that keeping little Sophie and raising her together is the best option, since all of the friends’ family members are completely incompetent (guy w/oxygen tank, couple with 9 kids, a touring stripper!). And then, my friends, hilarity ensues –but you’ve also seen all of that in the preview.
Months of montages go by while they find their balance, creating an awkward family dynamic that eventually ends up with discovered “feelings”, but it all comes off as completely unbelievable. I know the Director and Writers were probably going for realism, but you can’t have the two main characters complain about money problems off-handedly and then make a major plot point around Messer loaning Holly money to expand her bakery.
Wait. What? Weren’t they both just sitting around saying how broke they BOTH are? Messer didn’t have money to help with the house, but now that it’s for YOU, cool. Have it. Never mind the fact that “saving money” goes completely against everything else we know about Messer, just throw it in there. It HAS to work!
But the problem here isn’t really the inconsistencies or that I didn’t buy all of the neighbors being total stereotypes (big, sassy lady who LOVES food and bosses her husband around, hilarious gay couple, nerdy babysitter)—or even that Messer is supposedly so hot every single person who sees him wants to have sex with him ASAP.
The problem is that I knew from the start exactly what would happen with Holly and Messer, and exactly how the movie would end, despite the writers’ best efforts to distract me with a “twist”, Josh Lucas, and adorable baby antics.
Sometimes that works out just fine, but in this case, the characters were so benign I didn’t care about either of them. I’m a big crier at movies, and the only thing that elicited any emotion from me was the baby, because the one thing they did right was to pick triplets that will melt you heart with a smile.
Still, I’m betting I’ll forget I saw this movie entirely by next summer. Harsh, I know. But true.