I Don't Know How She Does It
Time Out New York Project: Issue #828, September 15-21, 2011
★☆☆☆☆
Dir. Douglas McGrath. 2011. PG-13. 90mins. Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear.
Multitasking Boston mother Kate Reddy (Parker, still doing her insufferable sage routine from Sex and the City) has a devoted husband (Kinnear), two beautiful children and a job she loves — in finance, no less! To those around her, Kate’s a miracle worker who somehow effortlessly juggles the pressures of bake sales and number crunching. (They just, ahem, don’t know how she does it.) But it doesn’t take long before Douglas McGrath’s painfully unfunny comedy, based on Allison Pearson’s best-selling novel, reveals the awful truth: This mighty woman is stressed out. And something’s gotta give.
Plenty of great films have been made from less. If Stan Brakhage can create a movie literally out of dead moths, then humor can surely be extracted from the first-world problems of an investment strategist with a desire to better balance life and career. Wishful thinking. The situations are third-rate sitcom at best: Kate accidentally sends a dirty e-mail to a prospective business partner. Oh no! And a bevy of television stars past and present (Kelsey Grammer, Christina Hendricks, Seth Meyers, Jane Curtin), plus the man comedian Julie Brown once hilariously referred to as “Brosnan, Pierce,” orbit around SJP to constantly affirm her character’s rightness in all things. Only Kinnear manages to give his role some shades beyond the broadly farcical, though even he ultimately succumbs to his leading lady’s toothy grin and Oprah-sanctioned bromides.—Keith Uhlich
