Life as We Know It

“Life as We Know It” fails to create humorous comedy and a plot that retains the audiences interest.

“Life as We Know It” follows the story of Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel), but he’s just known as Messer. The only thing the two have in common is their best friends, Peter (Hayes MacArthur) and Alison (Christiana Hendricks). Peter and Alice marry and have a child, Sophie (Alexis Clagett, Brynn Clagett and Brooke Clagett) and her Godparents are Holly and Messer.

Holly and Messer both lead happy lives, doing whatever they wish, until a tragic car accident kills Peter and Alison, leaving Sophie an orphan. Peter and Alison’s will states that they want Holly and Messer to raise Sohpie together, despite the fact that they hate each other.

The plot of “Life as We Know It” is a formulaic romantic comedy, the twist is that there is a baby. It moves fairly steady in the beginning, but then slows down to a crawl. The ending is dragged out so far that audiences start to lose interest. It tries to twist the plot into something viewers haven’t seen but it fails to do so. Audiences know Holly and Messer will end up together; it’s in the trailer and it’s in the formula, so there is no reason to drag it out as long as it was. The story itself was filled with clichés and when it tried to go against the cliché it only went back again.

The story was also filled with a lot of conveniences. For example, it was very convenient that somehow Peter and Alison even had a will before they died. It was convenient that Peter and Alison had no relatives that could take care of Sophie. Most of all, it was extremely convenient that Peter and Alison both died in the car accident. However, without all these conveniences there would be no story, so were they necessary conveniences? Not necessarily, because it only made the plot extremely unbelievable, in some cases that works, but this fails to be it.

The script (Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson) fails to deliver the laughs needed to make the film move. There was a lot of poop jokes on Sophie’s part, but those did a pretty crappy job of enticing audiences to laughter, gag maybe, but laugh not so much. There was also many attempts to crack some sex jokes, not only did those become obnoxious after the first twenty minutes, but they failed miserably.

So, if sex and poop can’t get people to laugh what else is there? In this case, they placed the characters in some completely random situations. These not only made no sense, but there was no reason for it. It didn’t add to the plot, it didn’t move it; it only made it drag it out more. It seemed like the writers put them in there as a last minute, “Why not?” to maintain audience interest and add in one or two more “jokes”.

However, the script did one thing right; it showed Holly and Messer grieving the loss of their friends, not only in the beginning, but through the whole movie. It showed the initial sorrow of the loss, and later when Holly talks about she misses calling her friend and asking advice. Through that loss, it only makes them care for and love Sophie even more. It’s the only thing left of their friends and the only left that they can do for them.

The acting is average. There is a lot of yelling and crying, that at times is a little overacted. Heigl and Duhamel don’t always deliver the comic lines perfectly either. Heigl and Duhamel well portray parents trying to figure out how to raise a kid, which they have no idea how to do. However, there are some elements that are hard to believe they don’t know.

The personalities of the character are not very unique, however they are played consistently. Holly is a planner, control freak and perfectionist. Messer is laid-back and fun-loving. The differences in their personality allow them to work together well, even if at first they can’t stand each other.

Even though “Life as We Know It” focuses on Sophie, she fails to get much screen time. When it she does she is either crying or being cute, and when the plot needs a cute, “Awwww” from the audience the camera turns to her. If she wasn’t needed for the plot, she wouldn’t be there. Also at times she is portrayed a little unbaby-like.

“Life as We Know It” is filled with flaws and is dragged out over nearly two hours. The few good elements are out-weighed by the bad. The movie only proves that an implausible story can be made worse by a poor effort to generate laughs.