If Katherine Heigl wants to lock herself away forever in genre of romantic comedy, that’s fine by me. She seems to have a better knack for dry, offhand knocks on relationships than many actresses; she just can’t choose films with a quality script to save her life (or career). In yet another turn as the successful female who finds herself “unexpectedly” falling for the scruffy, lovable guy she previously dismissed, Heigl delivers a decent performance in a story that really makes no sense whatsoever and feels like it was ripped out of a romantic television sitcom in its fourth season after jumping the shark. Hey, what if a man and woman who seem like polar opposites get stuck with taking care of a kid and gradually come to prove that opposites really do attract. Only, they don’t when it comes to people and the very notion of Life as We Know It is patently absurd, filled with overlapping demands that you overlook the silly logic behind almost every decision.
The truth of the matter is that raising a kid isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. As the parent you’re responsible for taking care of a defenseless living thing and nurturing it in all the right ways. When a parent fails to do this, Child Protective Services step in and find new parents who will fulfill those duties – and Life as We Know It acknowledges that reality and then just laughs it off. In fact, it laughs off pretty much everything, but it does a poor job at getting the audience to laugh along. Much of the problem stems from using a formula that seems to be the default for any romantic comedy whose writer feels like doing minimal work and simply wants to turn in a factory-made sapfest that has just enough yuks to fill out a trailer and then meanders along emptily for the remaining 90 minutes of its duration. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a little of the blame for this cookie-cutter comedy to Heigl and Josh Duhamel for not attempting anything out of the ordinary with their characters, instead leaving us with the success-driven female control freak (the only character Heigl seems interested or capable of playing) and the affable, devil-may-care ladies man (that could be played by just about any male actor with the smallest shreds of talent) who have to learn to embrace unpredictability or to take responsibility, respectively.
All of this “change” happens when Holly Berenson (Heigl) and “Messer” (Duhamel), who attempted a date that failed before it ever began, inherit the child of their mutual friends (Hayes MacArthur and Christina Hendricks) after they die in a car accident. With no prior warning, they become the guardians of Sophie and begin the awkward process of finding a compromise between the lives they once led and that of parenthood. With an atom-thin explanation as to why they get to or why they would choose to live in the house of their recently passed friends, Holly and Messer become roommates in the deceased couples home as they learn the ins and outs of parenthood and weigh it against their desires to live lives autonomous of one another. In taking over as Sophie’s parents, they receive visits from a child services rep that treats the idea of two uninterested, ill-prepared people adopting a child and moving into the house of her dead parents is a normal thing, nevermind that the new father still insists on bedding random women and that the new mother seems intent on romancing a doctor (Josh Lucas).
The whole film is riddled with holes; the performances are stereotypical emotionally plying dreck; and there’s next to nothing redeeming it. It looks decent enough in hi-def, but there’s no real justification for needing to see a trainwreck like this one in 1080p.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Perhaps the item of most value in this package is its inclusion of the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and as a digital copy. Otherwise, the extras are nothing special but three promotional fluff pieces that take moments from the film and attempt to convert it into a handbook for raising children, showcasing the talents of the stars within, or raving about how well cast members got along on- and off-screen. A reel of deleted scenes has also been included.
"Life as We Know It" is on sale February 8, 2011 and is rated PG13. Comedy, Romance. Directed by Greg Berlanti. Written by Ian Deitchman, Kristin Rusk Robinson. Starring Christina Hendricks, Hayes MacArthur, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, Katherine Heigl.
