Jason KingI Don't Know How She Does It: A Review by Mitch
November 3rd 2011 09:00
:
Not really Mitch's favourite film this year :)
Category: Reviews
Big thanks to Mitch, who sounded like I made him walk on hot coals, for attending this one for me 
Nice review Mitch!!
Sarah Jessica Parker plays Kate Reddy, a finance executive, a mother of 2 and a wife who is financially supporting her family in the lead up to her husband Richard's big promotion. As bad timing would have it, the great news that Kate receives is that she too is on the cusp of a promotion after teaming up with head honcho Jack Abelhammer and impressing some valuable investors with a lucrative pitch for a new retirement fund.
In order to close this deal, Kate must juggle family and career as she jet-sets across the country at the drop of a hat in a bid to maintain her career and get that promotion.
Juggling pie baking for her resentful daughter's school bake sale to spending time with her little son to politely ignoring her in-laws commentary and parental notes and her husband's new job, her friends are often left saying I don't know how she does it.
Well I know how she does it and I don't blame her. If I got Sarah Jessica Parkers paycheque, I'd do this movie too. As for sitting through it, well I don't know how I did that.
I Don't Know How She Does It is directed by Douglas McGrath (Infamous) and is adapted from the Allison Pearson novel of the same name by The Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses screenplay writer, Aline Brosh McKenna.
This is a PG rated Sarah Jessica Parker comedy. That in itself should tell you what you're in for. If not, this is Sex and the City with Carrie Bradshaw as a mum, if they dropped the sex and scaled the innuendo, language, socialising, wardrobe and adult themes right back to barely there. I Don't Know How She Does It is a pretty innocent, fluffy, cheesy, easy 89 minute movie. There are some amusing observations about what makes mum's tick, the to-do list that mum's write out in their head while they're in bed and other certain female idiosyncrasies but if you're expecting anything more than maybe a few mindless chuckles that are more so encouraged by your surrounding audience, you'll be disappointed.
I found Parker's acting pretty terrible. She's never been the strongest actress in the game and this movie doesn't really give her much of a chance to exercise any further acting chops that might've been hidden away. Not that it ever would've, it is, after all, what it is which is just a breezy chick-flick... not really the go-to genre for Oscar worthy thespian performances. As famous as she is for her starring role in Sex and the City, her role felt really weak in this movie.
Pierce Brosnan plays Jack Abelhammer, the powerful businessman who has recruited Kate as his partner to help him land a massive client. Initially, he appears to just be there so Kate can embarrass herself in front of him but as the movie progresses, his presence begins to pose a threat to Kate's marriage... Not really, that would've been interesting. The connection that these two characters develop is aiming for sexual tension but only manages to pull off borderline affection for one another in really non-threatening and boringly unfulfilling way. Brosnan doesn't do anything special, he's just an actor in a movie filled with roles that have no room to move.
Greg Kinnear seems like a top guy. I've seen him in a bunch of flicks and interviews and he seems like a real chill guy but he just phones his performance in here. There's not much for him to do, other than to be the husband. His character receives a promotion which would imply friction but again, only one scene alludes to this without actually grabbing hold of it and running with it.
It seems that every plot point they could've really abused in this tired old cliche story, they avoided because they didn't want anyone in the audience to get too sad. Here's a tip: Put something interesting in the movie otherwise people like me are going to cry because NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!
The story lets off a couple of amusing lines of dialogue between Kate and the Monster Mums, the rich, social, cheat on their husbands with their gym instructor type mothers and SJP's attempts at slapstick come off as kind of clumsy and a little forced and just not that funny despite the entire cinema laughing along with it.
The saving grace for me here was Olivia Munn. She plays Kate's robotic workaholic assistant who lives and breathes her career and see's Kate's life as a wife and mother, a pointless and dishevelled lifestyle that nobody in their right mind would ever want. She was actually funny. If I came close to laughing or broke the seal and chuckled a bit, it was because of Munn.
The script is standard. Yes, it is an adaptation of a book but nevertheless, the formula has been done to death and this movie adds nothing new to it. Scenes where characters are being psuedo-interviewed reminded me a lot of the Cameron Diaz/Christina Applegate/Selma Blair chick flick The Sweetest Thing, although I'm quite sure it had been done before that as well. The directing is standard, no special mentions are warranted here, it's pretty straight forward. The characters are cliche and even a minor role from SNL legend and comedy great Jane Curtin just gets brushed off like nothing. I really hate to be a hater but this movie is just really standard... and that's being nice.
When the lights came on at the end, I discovered that the cinema was filled with women which explains all the laughing. I Don't Know How She Does It is not really marketed to me, it is very much a movie for mum's and wives so to the husbands and boyfriends out there who are going to get involuntarily dragged along to this, I'm sorry but the only relief I can offer you is that it only runs for 89 minutes, an hours improvement on Sex and the City's run time of 150 minutes, so consider yourself lucky this time around.
I Don't Know How She Does It - I'm sorry guys, I'm still trying to figure out how I did it... 2/10
Nice review Mitch!!
Sarah Jessica Parker plays Kate Reddy, a finance executive, a mother of 2 and a wife who is financially supporting her family in the lead up to her husband Richard's big promotion. As bad timing would have it, the great news that Kate receives is that she too is on the cusp of a promotion after teaming up with head honcho Jack Abelhammer and impressing some valuable investors with a lucrative pitch for a new retirement fund.
In order to close this deal, Kate must juggle family and career as she jet-sets across the country at the drop of a hat in a bid to maintain her career and get that promotion.
Juggling pie baking for her resentful daughter's school bake sale to spending time with her little son to politely ignoring her in-laws commentary and parental notes and her husband's new job, her friends are often left saying I don't know how she does it.
Well I know how she does it and I don't blame her. If I got Sarah Jessica Parkers paycheque, I'd do this movie too. As for sitting through it, well I don't know how I did that.
I Don't Know How She Does It is directed by Douglas McGrath (Infamous) and is adapted from the Allison Pearson novel of the same name by The Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses screenplay writer, Aline Brosh McKenna.
This is a PG rated Sarah Jessica Parker comedy. That in itself should tell you what you're in for. If not, this is Sex and the City with Carrie Bradshaw as a mum, if they dropped the sex and scaled the innuendo, language, socialising, wardrobe and adult themes right back to barely there. I Don't Know How She Does It is a pretty innocent, fluffy, cheesy, easy 89 minute movie. There are some amusing observations about what makes mum's tick, the to-do list that mum's write out in their head while they're in bed and other certain female idiosyncrasies but if you're expecting anything more than maybe a few mindless chuckles that are more so encouraged by your surrounding audience, you'll be disappointed.
I found Parker's acting pretty terrible. She's never been the strongest actress in the game and this movie doesn't really give her much of a chance to exercise any further acting chops that might've been hidden away. Not that it ever would've, it is, after all, what it is which is just a breezy chick-flick... not really the go-to genre for Oscar worthy thespian performances. As famous as she is for her starring role in Sex and the City, her role felt really weak in this movie.
Pierce Brosnan plays Jack Abelhammer, the powerful businessman who has recruited Kate as his partner to help him land a massive client. Initially, he appears to just be there so Kate can embarrass herself in front of him but as the movie progresses, his presence begins to pose a threat to Kate's marriage... Not really, that would've been interesting. The connection that these two characters develop is aiming for sexual tension but only manages to pull off borderline affection for one another in really non-threatening and boringly unfulfilling way. Brosnan doesn't do anything special, he's just an actor in a movie filled with roles that have no room to move.
Greg Kinnear seems like a top guy. I've seen him in a bunch of flicks and interviews and he seems like a real chill guy but he just phones his performance in here. There's not much for him to do, other than to be the husband. His character receives a promotion which would imply friction but again, only one scene alludes to this without actually grabbing hold of it and running with it.
It seems that every plot point they could've really abused in this tired old cliche story, they avoided because they didn't want anyone in the audience to get too sad. Here's a tip: Put something interesting in the movie otherwise people like me are going to cry because NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!
The story lets off a couple of amusing lines of dialogue between Kate and the Monster Mums, the rich, social, cheat on their husbands with their gym instructor type mothers and SJP's attempts at slapstick come off as kind of clumsy and a little forced and just not that funny despite the entire cinema laughing along with it.
The saving grace for me here was Olivia Munn. She plays Kate's robotic workaholic assistant who lives and breathes her career and see's Kate's life as a wife and mother, a pointless and dishevelled lifestyle that nobody in their right mind would ever want. She was actually funny. If I came close to laughing or broke the seal and chuckled a bit, it was because of Munn.
The script is standard. Yes, it is an adaptation of a book but nevertheless, the formula has been done to death and this movie adds nothing new to it. Scenes where characters are being psuedo-interviewed reminded me a lot of the Cameron Diaz/Christina Applegate/Selma Blair chick flick The Sweetest Thing, although I'm quite sure it had been done before that as well. The directing is standard, no special mentions are warranted here, it's pretty straight forward. The characters are cliche and even a minor role from SNL legend and comedy great Jane Curtin just gets brushed off like nothing. I really hate to be a hater but this movie is just really standard... and that's being nice.
When the lights came on at the end, I discovered that the cinema was filled with women which explains all the laughing. I Don't Know How She Does It is not really marketed to me, it is very much a movie for mum's and wives so to the husbands and boyfriends out there who are going to get involuntarily dragged along to this, I'm sorry but the only relief I can offer you is that it only runs for 89 minutes, an hours improvement on Sex and the City's run time of 150 minutes, so consider yourself lucky this time around.
I Don't Know How She Does It - I'm sorry guys, I'm still trying to figure out how I did it... 2/10
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Comment by AmyHuang
Project Job Search
Travel Debate
Travel String
Love Adventures
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Hope you have been good!
Comment by AmyHuang
Project Job Search
Travel Debate
Travel String
Love Adventures
I might put it on the list of "I'll watch it when I have absolutely nothing else to watch" list. Hey you know surprisingly, I saw Bridesmaids on the flight back from Bangkok last month and I did like that, in a light hearted sort of way!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Just kidding (not really
I am yet to see Bridesmaids but everyone raves about it being the "female" Hangover.