DVD Reviews

Life as We Know It – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Feb 14, 2011, 15:37 GMT

After a disastrous first date for caterer Holly (Katherine Heigl) and network sports director Messer (Josh Duhamel), all they have is common is a dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter Sophie. But when they suddenly become all Sophie has in this world, Holly and Messer must set their differences aside. Juggling careers and social calendars, they’ll have to find common ground while living under the same ...more

One look at the cover will reveal everything you could possibly need to know about the movie. Uptight gal struggles to raise baby with man-child. Cue the numerous ‘aww’ baby moments and a burgeoning romance masked as hostility. There’s no danger of surprise in the movie, but the ladies will no doubt find it casually entertaining.

The movie sets up with Josh Duhamel’s (‘Transformers’) Eric Messer, who obnoxiously goes by Messer, showing up for a blind date with Heigl’s Holly and the evening is destined for disaster.

An automatic dislike for each other sets in and when Messer answers a booty call before they even set off for the date, Holly puts an end to the date and scolds her best friend who set her up.

You see, Eric and Holly are the best friends of a happy couple (‘Mad Men’s’ Christina Hendricks who provides a lone bright spot for us guys and Hayes MacArthur) and they have to suffer each other’s presence during the social functions of the young couple including the birthday party of their 1-year old daughter Sophie.

After a horrible car accident involving Sophie’s parents leaves her an orphan, the strained premise really sets in with the couple leaving the care of Sophie to both Eric and Holly - where they have to move into the couple’s Atlanta mansion. And of course, the couple didn’t tell them and we have to suffer the predictably rote set of incredulous looks from Duhamel and Heigl.

So they both begrudgingly agree to raise the baby and so sets off the new parent shenanigans – poop on the face! she won’t stop crying! she likes to watch kids shows! – while the forced together couple argue over responsibilities and schedules.

Maybe all of this is hilarious to teens who don’t know what exhaustion lies ahead or parents with their diaper-changing days long behind them, but as a parent of a five-year old, I get enough arguments about responsibilities and schedules at home thank you very much. I sure as hell don’t need to see another couple arguing about it.

Anywho, we all know that Eric and Holly will end up with each other but we get the respective obstacles for both anyway. A serious job offer for Eric where he has to move to Phoenix and a perfect pediatrician (Josh Lucas) vying for her affections with Holly. A film made by and filled with TV veterans, which is pretty much where expectations should lie; a glossy, reasonably well-acted sitcom.

The film is presented with a 1080p 2.35:1 AVC encode and it looks okay. The movie is mostly a soft-focus affair so the movie never really pops but it’s serviceable for what it is. The 5.1 DTS-HD aud track gets the job done.

Special Features start off with ‘A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting’, a featurette that collects a lot useless info on raising kids. ‘Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever’ and ‘Josh Duhamel: Triplet Tamer’ are quick featurettes focusing on the actors. We also get fifteen minutes of ‘Deleted Scenes’ for an already over-long movie and a ‘Theatrical Trailer’.

I won’t say the movie is outright bad. It’s put together professionally and probably offers enough entertainment for a gal’s night out but this is certainly not a romantic comedy that will appeal to both sexes. So a muted recommendation for viewers susceptible to such schmaltz and a please avoid for everybody else.