Rating: 2/10
Running Time: 89 minutes
US Certificate: PG-13 UK Certificate: 12A
Lucky us, Jennifer Aniston hasn’t even died yet and we already have a new reincarnation. Hugely successful TV show – check. A few not awful tentative steps into the movies? Check. A catalogue of God awful but commercially successful films building up over years – check. No chance of ever being taken seriously or going away? Full house!
Poor Kate Reddy (Parker) is a Finance Executive who is also the breadwinner for a family including her husband (Kinnear) and two kids (Goldberg and Lyle). As she struggles to juggle the two roles to poor comic effect, she tries to be the perfect Middle Class Mom by participating in bake sales and holding elaborate dinner parties whilst she closes in on her dream career-making account by working with a dashing British banker (Brosnan).
The main problems with I Don’t Know How She Does it, is that it’s too hard to care about the main character. She lives in a four-storey townhouse with a full-time nanny and tonnes of cash. She’s also a banker – the enemy of the twenty first century – with flexible working hours and has a lovely, supportive husband. Her dilemmas are not exactly those that would trouble Barack Obama or Fabio Capello and so there is no hint of danger or disaster lurking and she keeps coming up trumps as she succeeds with her middle-of-the-road problems. Everyone around her treats her like a Goddess and the cringeworthy voiceover is hard to listen to – I can’t wait to watch it on DVD just so I can put a Director’s Commentary over the top of it. Is juggling a career and a family really that novel a problem?
A cavalcade of the most amiable and fluffy actors and actresses working today – including Brosnan, Kinnear and Grammer – try their best to make this not the worst thing you will see this year but unfortunately their best is just not good enough. Quite simply, this adaptation of ‘s novel should never have been made. Especially not with SJP.
It's Got: A few funny moments (a FEW), some of the cast who actually seem to care about this vehicle
It Needs: Problems to care about, a less cringeworthy voiceover, more funny bits
Summary
I don’t know how she [insert derogatory comment here].