Movie Review - Life as We Know It

Life as We Know It (2010)

Starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel

Directed by Greg Berlanti

So, sue me, but I have a soft spot for a good romantic comedy.  While Life as We Know It may not bring anything new to the table, it was a thoroughly enjoyable little flick that provided more than enough laughs to make this a worthwhile watch.

When one-year old Sophie's parents die in a car crash, their will specifies that guardianship of Sophie falls to their best friends Holly and Messer (Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel).  Needless to say, Holly and Messer had never gotten along, but now they must come together in order to raise this cute-as-a-button little girl.  It's probably not difficult to see where this story is gonna go (although, for a while, I foolishly thought the movie may veer onto a different route, but I was mistaken).

Despite the fact that this flick follows many of the standard romantic comedy clichés, it works mainly because of kid.  Triplets Alexis, Brynn, and Brooke Clagett are the stars of this picture and anytime one of the trio is on the screen as Sophie, you can't help but smile.  Both Heigl and Duhamel really come alive in any scene with Sophie and I found them both surprisingly warm and charming.  I really was expecting neither of them to be able to carry this film, but they proved to be quite successful in winning me over.

Unfortunately, where the film lags a bit is in the scenes where Heigl and Duhamel's Holly and Messer explore their relationship with one another.  The second half of the film which focuses much more on the adults rather than the kid isn't nearly as interesting or enjoyable as the first half.  And let me put a moratorium on scenes in which older people smoke pot (or in this case bake it in brownies) in order to relive their youth.  Like last year's It's Complicated in which Meryl Streep and Steve Martin lit up a joint, smoking pot to comedic effect irritates me immensely for some reason.  I'm no prude, but this is just a little movie-going quirk that I have that angers me.  Funny drunks I'm okay with, but funny druggies just doesn't make me happy.  And the thing is this was a plot point that was 100% unnecessary.  It didn't add a darn thing to the movie.

Still, I've got to say that I enjoyed Life as We Know It.  Yes, I know it's nothing groundbreaking, but I laughed a lot more here than in any movie I've recently watched.

The RyMickey Rating:  B