Movie review - Life as We Know It

I had an opportunity to catch the 2010 release Josh Duhamel KAtherine Heigl starrer 'Life as we know it' at a friend's place. Since i hadn't seen it, i thought catching it would be a good post for the blog.

The Plot:


The movie starts in 2007. Eric Messer, played by Josh Duhamel(the Danny McCoy of Las Vegas) and Holly Berenson, played by Katherine Heigl, have been set up on a date by their friends Peter and Alison Novak. the date is a disaster, and it ends even before it takes off.

Eric's a technical director at a sports channel broadcasting company, and Holly's a professional baker who owns a bakery store. Peter and Alison's attempt to bring them together fails. Eric and Holly are two very different people who are very different, and very satisfied in their own ways.

Eric and Holly next meet at Sophie's first birthday in 2009. Being the closest to the Novak's, their presence was important at the birthday celebrations.

One night, Eric and Holly get a call from the police. Peter and Alison were killed in a car accident. Since they were the closest of the Novak's, they were given the temporary custody of the child. Later they come to know that the Novak's had given both of them a joint custody of Sophie in their will. Both Eric and Holly are devastated on coming to know this fact. Peter and Alison had never discussed with any about the custody of Sophie in case something happens to them, and hence seemed unbelievable. They tried to put up a petition to the court for transfer of custody to some other relative of Sophie, but the court decides to maintain the will of the Novak's.

Handling a baby becomes a big problem with them. Juggling work and baby becomes troublesome for both Eric and Holly. Eric once gets an opportunity to substitute his boss's place, but messes up because Sophie was crying in the second half which caused hearing problems to the employees.

Eric and Holly are visited by Janine. She's a counsellor from the social services who looks over their case. She always lands up at their place at the worst possible timing. Because of this, she gets to face awkward situations.

As for Holly, she had a really big trouble handling her bakery store and the baby. The bakery store was getting modified into a restaurant, and she had to overlook it. The expenses were increasing over the expansion than expected, and she was having a hard time paying her share of Sophie's expenses, the house taxes, the bills and the expenditure on expansion.

Sophie's doctor, Dr Sam Nelson know Holly for sometime as he used to drop over at her bakery. Before the death of the Novak couple, Holly had a crush on him. Because of some circumstances, he wasn't able to get in touch with the doctor. When she took Sophie to the doctor's visit, she met him again. They start dating each other. Doctor Nelson happened to be divorced from one previous wife.

As the story progresses, the various problems Eric and Holly face together brings them close. They start gelling along too well. Infact, people start considering them as a couple as their adjustment between them was no less than of a couple's.

But one day, Eric gets the opportunity to become the director for a production studio at Phoenix. He intends to take it, and even gets ready for it, but doesn't tell Holly. One day, Holly comes to know when one of his workplace colleague discusses about it with him in front of her. On coming to know this, Holly becomes infuriated and hurt. Eventually Eric goes to Pjoenix and does his new job. But even there he misses Sophie.

At the end of the season, he comes back for thanksgiving. He meets Holly and Holly invites him home for thanksgiving. On thanksgiving, they have a quarrel over selling of the house. Eric was mad at Holly for not telling him about the sale, whereas Holly was justifying her decision. In the sequence of arguments, Eric confesses his love for Holly. Holly gets shocked, and suggests him to continue his work at Phoenix. Eric goes. All the guests including Dr Sam hear about this. Sam later in the evening tells that she still had unresolved feelings for him.

Next day, the counsellor from social service. While conversing with her, Holly realises her mistake and rushes to the airport to stop Eric. But she gets too late as by the time she reaches there, the flight had took off.
At the airport, Eric realises that Holly and Sophie were his real family, and the reason Peter and Alison had given them the joint custody was because they were the closest to Sophie. Holly acknowledges her love for Eric. Later, on Sophie's second birthday, Holly bakes a special cake to mark her one year with Eric. They go and celebrate the birthday. The end

Final Decision:

The story seems a old, with some changes made to accomodate an element of freshness. The airport scene is probably the most predictable as we've been watching such stuff ever since we started watching movies.

Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl have done some decent acting. The others too have done a nice job.

The music of the film is nice. Its been used apt, and isn't loud - something thats been missing in many movies these days.

Overall, the movie is good enough for watching a couple of times. Watching the baby do things is entertaining.

Finally, to rate, i'd like to give the movie 3.5 out of 5.

What do you feel? Do you agree with me, or have a different opinion? Feel free to pour in