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Life As We Know It

I liked that the movie had ambitions to be more than a typical, superficial romantic comedy. Problem was, ambitions are not enough.

Character

My first thought of Josh Duhamel was exactly what Katherine Heigl said to him- he’s an asshole. He showed up an hour late for the date, dressed like a bum, expected to take Katherine on his motorcycle, and did not make plans for the date. How did anyone like this character? And when will writers and filmmakers realize that the handsomeness of an actor or cuteness of an actress does not create empathy and that empathy is first needed before we can care that the character will grow?

Early on, Josh left the house for a moment and then returned with a moving story of how the baby’s dead father stayed with him one summer when they were teenageres and he had broken his back, and that’s why he’s sticking with the baby. Then near the end when he got the job offer in Phoenix, he picked up and left. That was pretty much unforgivable.

Finally, to make things even worse, Katherine Heigl felt that she loves Josh despite him leaving her and the baby and despite her having a relationship with a great guy, the doctor. Ridiculous.

Premise

The device of the parents dying was too dramatic for a simple romcom and it was hard to suspend disbelief that the parents left their baby to a single guy and a single girl and whom they knew did not get along well. This would have had a chance at succeeding as a dramedy and had the godparents-couple who unexpectedly received custody of the child been together a short while with no plan in the foreseeable future of having children.

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