Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) is wife to Richard Reddy (Greg Kinear) and mother of two who is able to masterfully balance her career and family life until she’s offered a highly coveted position to work on a project with Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Bronson). Kate finds herself losing her ability to balance time between work and family and ends spending more time on her career with Jack away from her family. Her absence begins to alienate her husband and kids and Kate comes to realize the hard truth that something has to give.
He Said:
The movie was not terrible, but it wasn’t my favorite either. There were some truly funny scenes, but that’s where it ended for me. I would try to blame it on the movie being targeted more for a female audience, but it wasn’t even that, really. The acting wasn’t all that bad, but it just felt unnatural or forced. The reactions the characters had in certain scenes were just not very believable. I got that the point of the movie was choosing between work and family, but it just took so long to make the point that I started to get bored with it. I also didn’t feel much struggle from any of the characters, except maybe slightly from Richard. It was hard for me to really relate or form any kind of emotional connection to the characters.
My Rating: Wait for TV.
She Said:
I’ve been a fan of Sarah Jessica Parker ever since I watched her on the TV show Square Pegs – way before her glam days in Sex and the City (which I’m also a huge fan of). In a lot of ways, I Don’t Know How She Does It felt like an alternate reality version of Sex and the City without the same quirky Carrie style and steamy candor.
I really wanted to like this movie, but there just wasn’t enough conflict to hook me into the story. The movie was more “tell” and less “show”. I was told that Kate was frazzled but I never really felt it, I was told Kate missed her children, but I didn’t see her truly suffering, and I was told that she had an adversarial relationship with some of the stay-at-home moms, but it all felt incredibility polite. None of the conflict came to life on the screen – the only glimmer of conflict was between Kate and her husband, Richard, but that was easily resolved with a quickie.
I Don’t Know How She Does It had a chance to dig its teeth into some real conflict with the introduction of Jack, a coworker of Kate’s, but the script missed the mark – the conflict turned into more posturing about Kate’s struggle to juggle work and home instead of the fact that she’s got a rich hottie like Pierce Brosnan trying to woo her.
Yeah, I was underwhelmed. While the character Kate may be relatable to many working moms, the force driving this movie fell as flat as 2 day old Pellegrino.
My Rating: Wait for TV or Don’t Bother
Ooo. That’s a big ouch for SJP. I’ll wait until it’s shown on TV.
I’m not a big SJP fan (don’t hit me), so I’ve been chalking up most of reluctance to see this movie to that fact. BUT it has two of my virtual harem kings in it — Greg Kinnear and Pierce Brosnan — so I’ve been conflicted. Now that I hear you were underwhelmed (and I trust your judgment except for maybe the SJP thing) I think I’ll just wait it out.