I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT – The Review

Well, it ‘s past Labor Day and it’s time for the older adults to head back to the multiplex. Usually this signals the time for those big Oscar-bait dramas, but here’s a genteel comedy for the married with kids set-those hungover frat boys will just have to wait for next Summer’s party flicks. Arriving in cinemas now is Douglas McGrath’s (EMMA) adaptation (along with 27 DRESSES screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna) of Allison Pearson’s book I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. Well I’m not giving anything away (thanks to the TV spots and trailers) when I tell you that movie shows how she does do somethings and can’t fully do others. Guess it would be a pretty short flick if everything turned out perfect!

The film’s focus is wife, mother, and career woman Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker). She’s doing her best to juggle her responsibilities st the office and home. She devotes many hours to the job while traveling across the country for some sort of financial consulting firm (one of the film’s main gags is that no one outside her office knows exactly what she does). Kate’s got a demanding, sometimes befuddled boss (Kelsey Grammar), a goal-oriented single young assistant (Olivia Munn), and a snarky competing co-worker (Seth Meyers) who tries to sabotage her at every chance. On the home front she tries to make time for her working hubby Richard (Greg Kinnear), pre-schooler Ben, and grade-schooler Emily. Thankfully Kate is helped considerably by their nanny Paula (Jessica Szohr) and best pal, single mom Allison (Christina Hendricks) while deflecting the disdainful stares of ‘mom-ster’ Wendy (Busy Phillips). Kate’s busy Boston life is further complicated when one of her proposals attracts the attention of Wall Street guru Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnsan). The many hours spent brainstorming with Jack puts a strain on her relationship with Richard and disrupts their winter holiday plans. And it looks like Jack’s interest in Kate may be going past the professional and into the personal. The question may not be how she does it but whether she can survive it.

This film covers a lot of the subject matter that TV (cable and network) have been dealing with for many years. Beside a top flight movie star cast this movie really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The wintry East Coast settings are lovely, but McGrath has trouble with the pacing. I was surprised at the short running time as the lights went up. McGrath  also employs a couple of film techniques that don’t totally mesh with the film. He uses documentary type interviews with the characters who talk about their dealings with Kate. At other times Kate breaks the fourth wall, suspending time in order to step forward and confide her feelings. We even get to see a flash forward fantasy CNN-style news report in which Kate’s school bake sale fiasco was the reason future adult Emily went on a killing spree. As for the actors, we may as well start with Kate played by SJP (as the tabloids call her). She seems to be entering a more mature phase of her career, going from the girlfriend, rom-com heroine and into the mother roles. Still there are still glimpses of her former characters. Kate is almost Carrie Bradshaw with the sex replaced by Lucy Ricardo-slapstick. Head lice joes… really? She alternates between being  flustered and floundering with more than a little exhaustion. Kinnear’s doing his cute, decent guy thing once more. I kind of miss that old smarmy charm in movies like MYSTERY MEN. Brosnan starts as the cold businessmen who warms after spending time with Kate, He’s another cliche of the perfect romantic older man-he has been married (if he were still single he might be gay!) but he’s not been tainted by divorce, for he’s a noble widower. It takes Kate to open up that heart once more. Uh-huh. Two of the supporting players truly do get to shine. Munn lights up the screen as the upwardly mobile assistant whose life plans gets thrown a curve. And Meyers builds on the screen smarm that Kinnear used to have and brings lots of energy to his role as the “Designated Office A*%#@^e”. The other actors don’t fare nearly as well. Hendricks (so great on TV’s Mad Men) only gets to smile supportively at Kate and sing her praises to an unseen interviewer. Phillips and Jane Curtin as a stereotypical mother-in-law act witchy and Grammar’s ster, but clueless. McGrath has assembled a terrific cast. It’s a shame that they are regulated to some of the sitcom shenanigans in this safe, unoffensive bit of fluff.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars