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Movie Review: I Don’t Know How She Does It

Dane Jackson

Based on the 2002 best-selling novel by Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How She Does It follows Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) as she tries to balance a family and hectic work schedule. I’m not the typical audience for a movie like this, but I appreciate a well-crafted comedy any day. While completely predictable (it is based on a chick lit novel after all), I Don’t Know How She Does It had just enough going on to make it watchable.

First, let me list the things the movie isn’t. It isn’t the next Sex & the City (in fact, Parker’s character feels like the anti-Carrie Bradshaw – she even has some scenes where she wears the same outfit to work more than once!); it also isn’t a romantic comedy with a cheesy meet-cute, major conflict, and ultimate resolution; and it definitely isn’t a chance for a desperate boyfriend dragged to this movie to ogle Olivia Munn or Christina Hendricks – sure, they steal the scenes they’re in but it’s not for the reason most guys would hope for.

In I Don’t Know How She Does It, the only real conflict is how Kate is able to manage her busy always-on-the-road work life with her family life in Boston with two kids and the most patient husband in the world, Richard (Greg Kinnear). Everything seems to be going okay until Kate gets a chance to consult with a corporate big wig in New York (Pierce Brosnan as Jack Abelhammer) on creating a mutual fund. The introduction of Jack is the closest this movie gets to any sort of relationship conflict, but really this movie is all about the constant struggle of being a successful working mom and the balancing act it requires. Any conflict offered up between Jack and Kate working alone together in New York so much is simply window dressing to the overarching familial issues Kate’s work schedule offers.

While the script may be predictable, director Douglas McGrath assembled an inspiring supporting cast that includes Kelsey Grammar, Seth Meyers, Jane Curtin, and Busy Phillips (as well as the folks mentioned previously). It’s hard for a movie to fall completely flat with a cast like this, and I’m happy to report that for the most part it doesn’t. Sure, I would have loved to see Grammar and Curtin in bigger roles, but you can’t have it all. Also, Olivia Munn was a pleasant surprise as work-obsessed Momo Hahn. She was given some of the best lines in the movie and she knocked her performance out of the park.

I’m purposefully ignoring all the gender politics associated with the movie in this review, but I would like to mention Busy Phillips and her role as the “perfect stay at home mom” with the appropriate name of Wendy Best. Sure, her portrayal was completely stereotypical, but it was damn funny nonetheless.

Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker in I Don’t Know How She Does It. Photo by Craig Blankenhorn – © 2011 The Weinstein Company, All Rights Reserved.

To be clear, I Don’t Know How She Does It isn’t for everyone. It’s a great movie for a group of women to see together as a girl’s night out. It’s a great date movie, and more importantly it’s a great movie for a couple that is struggling to successfully manage the juggling act of work, life, and family successfully. If this movie would’ve come out before I got married and had a kid, I would have been bored to tears watching it. While most of the situations Kate finds herself in are slightly more extreme than any of the juggling I’ve had to do, I can still relate which means I had a different sort of appreciation for this movie and could laugh because I felt the Reddy family’s pain.

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Dane Jackson

Dane Jackson has been writing about movies since high school when he had a monthly column in the school paper about cult movies. His cinematic tastes have matured (slightly) since then.
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