Movie – Life As We Know It
Director: Greg Berlanti (The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy)
Screenwriter: Ian Deitchman, Kristin Rusk Robinson (First movie for both)
Starring: Katharine Heigl (The Ugly Truth, 27 Dresses, Knocked Up), Josh Duhamel (When in Rome, Transformers, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!)
Theater – Carmike Oakdale 20 – Oakdale, Minnesota
Companion – Jill Gorshe
Food – Hell’s Kitchen
Intellectual Honesty
I probably enjoy romantic comedies more than a heterosexual male should. Really enjoyed 27 Dresses, but was disappointed by The Ugly Truth. Have no opinions on Josh Duhamel other than When in Rome was cute enough.
Baggage
Don’t know if I carried any into the theater other than my disappointment with Katherine Heigl’s The Ugly Truth and my complete lack of desire to see her follow up Killers.
Synopsis
Holly and Eric were set up on a blind date by their friends, Peter and Allison who are married. A few years later after Peter and Allison were killed in an accident, they learn that Peter and Allison have named them as the guardians to their daughter, Sophie. So they move into their house and try their best to honor their friends’ wishes. But raising a child puts a crimp on their style and they don’t exactly get along.
Review
There really isn’t much to say about this movie. It is extremely predictable, but the characters are likable enough and it is well enough done. This is the character that Heigl seems to plays in all of her other movies, so she isn’t breaking any new ground. Duhamel plays your stereotypical bombastic male love interest.
Although no new ground is broken, the jokes are funny enough that you aren’t overly frustrated that you know every plot turn well before it happens.
One addition to the formula that I did enjoy was Sarah Burns as a social worker that gets a little too emotionally invested in Holly and Eric’s relationship.
One painful moment that should have been rewritten or edited out of the film is when Holly and Eric do hookup, Holly wonders out loud whether or not Peter and Allison “planned” Holly and Eric getting together. As if their best friends intentionally killed themselves on the off chance that the 1 year old daughter that they would leave behind would unify their best friends in a romantic tryst. It is a head scratcher why this line of dialogue would have ever been written, let alone made it to the final cut of a movie. It isn’t as if they just left them in charge of their kid for the weekend. They died.
Predictable. Jill spent the end of the movie calling out what would happen next. But well enough done to make it still satisfying when it ended.
Rating
3.0/5 Caramels
Buy on DVD
Nope, but I will not turn the station if I saw it on TV.
2010 Ranking
I guess it is the best romantic comedy I’ve seen this year. So that is something.
Bonus Information
Saw the trailer for For Colored Girls It looks really good, but I’m not sure if that can be possible if Tyler Perry directed it. I guess I’ll have to give it a chance.
Up Next
Hereafter and Red
I wondered if this would be total drivel, or if it would be okay. I’ve never seen either of Heigl’s previous forays (other than Knocked Up), but it seemed from that like she’s kind of cast as a slightly-Type A, moderately shrill female who likes to be in control of her world. I’m curious if that’s how she is in these other movies.
Remove the “slightly” and you have hit it on the head.
27 Dresses is definitely worth checking out. I particularly love the way that movie ends. There is also more depth to that story. She has to deal with her younger sister marrying the man that she has been infatuated with for several years. Plus she has come to grips with the fact that her sister is lying about who she is to get that man.
I will check that out. I think I saw that it was on HBO recently. That, or I will Netflix it. I don’t always adore Rom-coms, but there are some great ones.
Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t transcendent. It won’t rock your world by any stretch of the imagination. But it holds its own with many of the other great romantic comedies of the last decade. It is up there with 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.