Life as We Know It Review

There are small spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Two single adults become caregivers to an orphaned girl when their mutual best friends die in an accident.


THE GOOD: Theme. Becoming a family is hard, and I think Life as We Know It does a good job demonstrating that. Having a baby, whether you are expecting one like us or you have one suddenly dropped on your lap like Holly and Messer, is no easy task. It can be downright miserable at times. The movie shows those moments. The stinky diapers, the lack of sleep, and no time to self. But, the movie also lets the audience observe the great aspects of raising a child. Witnessing the first steps, eating homemade solid food, and being called "mama" to name a few. The movie plays on the theme of building a family and raising a child with great success that I wonder how much experience the writers have with raising kids. Many scenes took me back a couple years to Juliana being younger since the baby girl in the movie, Sophie, is just over a year old. I also can't imagine how she would do if Bethany and I, for whatever reason, disappeared from this world. I mean, I know who she would go to, but what kind of impact would that have on her at this age? It's a scary thought, but one that I'm sure all parents have thought about. This movie will remind you of that.

THE BAD: Predictable. I'll give you one guess at what happens at the end of the movie and I'm pretty sure you would get it right. The movie is predictable on every single level. If there was a modus operandi for romantic comedies, this would fit the bill to a T.

Characters. The main characters of Holly and Messer (played by Katherine Heigl and Johnny Knoxville Josh Duhamel) are not very good people. He is probably worse than her, but they are both so self-involved and... well, mean. I really didn't care if the two characters were successful or not because I didn't care about them. The same goes for all of the minor characters as well. There is an obese mother who makes the father do all the child caring, a woman married to an overweight man who would jump Messer's bones at any chance, and a gay couple that fight worse than a heterosexual couple.

Not very funny. Yes, there were a few moments in the film that made me chuckle, but overall, the movie was not very funny. I guess it's on par with normal chick flicks, but with the plot of the film, it could have been so much funnier. But no, apparently baby poop on the face is hilarious. >.>

THE END: There are times when I'm really glad that I don't pay for movies and this is certainly one of them. Life as We Know It is not the worst movie I've seen all year, but it is one of them. Being formulaic, the annoying characters, and having only a few laughs are the main reasons. I wouldn't even recommend this as a date movie. Wait for this one on TV.


DISCUSS: What did you think of Life as We Know It? Did you think it was predictable? How would you compare this to other romantic comedies released in the last few years? As a parent, how accurate do you feel the movie was about parenting?