With Jim Sabatini

I Don't Know How She Does It?

Rated: PG-13  For language and adult situations.
Reviewed by: Chris
Release date: September 16, 2011	Released by: The Weinstein Company

      Based on the 2002 novel by Allison Pearson, the film asks the age-old question, can women have it all?   Can they be successful in business while juggling a good and happy home life?
 
       Sarah Jessica Parker is Kate Reddy, a married, mother of two who works in a Boston investment firm.   This role is closer to her own life at this point as a working actress with a husband and young children, than playing Carrie Bradshaw.
 
       She's married to an architect (played by always reliable Greg Kinnear) who is looking for work, has a two year old boy  and 5 year old daughter, who resents her mom  for not giving her full attention.   The marriage is good, but her husband is supportive to the point of being unrealistic.
 
       Her life takes a turn when her gruff boss (Kelsy Grammer) sends her to New York to meet with the impossibly suave and handsome Pierce Brosnan to pitch her idea for retirement fund investment.   He likes her ideas which means more travel, more late nights, and less time  being a wife and mother.
 
       Kate gets the job done, but she always seems about to lose it.   She talks very fast, rushes to appointments, making excuses for being late, she cuts corners on bake sale days at school, and  brakes promises at home.   She has one real friend  (Christina Hendricks) - other women acquaintances are portrayed to be catty - and no real support group except for her husband, whom she relies on heavily.
 
       Parker is very likable, and  works well off of her male co-stars.  The film  has a couple of nice moments, however no real laughs.   My one big peeve is its use of scenes that have the characters talking directly to the screen, which is throughout the film.