Thursday, October 21, 2010

‘Life As We Know It’ – predictable but sweet….

There have been quite a few ‘romantic comedies’ this summer and most of them have been dismal; these light weight attempts at a decent picture have been feeble at best – predictable always. The latest to hit the theaters Life As We Know It’ seems to come off of the same assembly line as all the others – but it does have a sweet, endearing quality that saves it from the bottom of the barrel.

The screenplay by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Robinson could have easily been a TV sitcom instead of a feature film. The story covers a year in the life of an orphaned baby girl, Sophie, who is being raised by her godparents, Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric (Josh Duhamel). The film starts by taking us 3 years back when Holly and Eric meet on a disastrous blind date, set up by their mutual friends Alison and Peter (the soon to be parents of Sophie). Things of course go from bad to worse as Eric is one hour late with his motorcycle and Holly refuses to ride the bike in her heels and dress. To make matters worse, Eric makes a ‘booty call’ to arrange a get together after he leaves Holly, early; Holly f course throws him out of the car vowing never to see him again.

Fate has other plans though as Alison and Peter are tragically killed in a car accident. Holly and Eric are given custody of little Sophie and the two are forced to live with the child as a family. They try to make the best of it but are constantly bickering. While it is standard sitcom fare, the characters grow on you, the emotions seem genuine and the screenplay has a nice handle on the rigors of raising a child. Especially sweet is the chemistry of Heigl and Duhamel, two people who are thrust together, who obviously do not like each other yet learn to love one another through the shared experience of Sophie.

Speaking of Sophie (played by triplets Lexie, Brynn and Brooke Clagett), she is simply adorable and steals each and every scene she is in. The moments she has are real and anyone with children will understand fully what is going on.

The film knows how to tug at your heart strings and there are some unexpected twists before the inevitable happy ending. This is a harmless movie, like eating warm cookies on a fall evening, full of comfort and pleasantries. A 2 ½ star sweet evening out!

My Redbox pick is keeping it in the romantic comedy genre, the 3 ½ star ‘Letter to Juliet’ follows the travels of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) as she wanders Italy looking for the author of a letter to Juliet from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. One of the only wonderful romantic comedies of this past summer, this is a film that will make you believe that you can find your true love, even if it isn’t the person you thought you were in love with.

No comments: