Life As We Know It
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, a baby.
Director: Greg Berlanti
Katherine Heigl, of Grey's Anatomy fame, returns to the rom-com genre (yeah, who would have seen that coming?) with this latest outing.
She stars as Holly Berenson, an uptight control freak of a bakery owner, and godparent to her best friend's daughter, Sophie.
Also along in the godfathering stakes is Josh Duhamel as Eric Messer, a slacker man-child jock who is happy with one-night stands and no form of commitment.
The pair meet at the start of the film after they're set up on a date that goes disastrously wrong - he's a biker, she drives a Smart car (as an aside who knew these cars would take off? First Waimoana in Charles Mesure's series This Is Not My Life - and now Hollywood) - but they find their lives thrust violently into collision when their mutual friends (and Sophie's parents) die in a car crash.
Holly and Messer are named as guardians to Sophie and are forced to live in a house and try the parenting game. But before long sparks are flying and Sophie's future is far from certain.
Life As We Know It is a pleasantly predictable romantic comedy with two affable leads. It won't win anything in the originality stakes but it won't leave you angry at the end of it, as some of Katherine Heigl's previous efforts are wont to do.
Sure, there's plenty of comedy to be mined from the fact these two are clearly out of their league as parents - and there's plenty of comedy to be mined from the inevitable baby pooing gags.
That's the thing with this film; you know exactly what's coming
- whether it's the growing romantic tension between the leads or
the problems they face, it's all fairly unoriginal fare - even
though there are some amusing moments.
And yet it's going to be popular because it's recognisable - so
many will feel it's their lives up on the screen in some form or
another - and with two leads with a decent amount of chemistry,
this piece of disposable film doesn't exactly sag in its two-hour
running time or overstay its welcome.
