Messer (Josh Duhamel) is a free-floating spirit. Holly (Katherine Heigel) is a woman ready to take control of her life. When they come together on a date it’s not exactly love at first sight, but they try for their friends Peter and Allison, who have matched them together. Years go by and while Messer and Holly still don’t see eye-to-eye, their friends Peter and Allison move on to bigger and better things, mostly marriage and then the birth of their daughter. Tragically, Peter and Allison die in a car wreck and end up leaving their daughter Sophie in the wonderful care of their two most wonderful friends, Eric and Holly. The competing couple must find a way to raise Sophie and not drive each other nuts at the same time.
The premise of this film is great. It’s a fresh take on romance between two young characters. The setup, which is usually rushed, is very well established in the film. The beginning of the movie takes about 10-15 minutes putting together Holly and Messer’s relationship woes and then putting together their love for their friends and their friends’ child. By the time it gets to the tragedy you’re fully engrossed with the very real possibility that Peter and Allison could leave Sophie to this mismatched couple. You’re there as an audience member saying, “This could happen.” From that point on the movie turns to moments of anxiety, funny and then downright confusion.
First, the comedy. The movie plays beautifully off the whimsical chemistry of Heigl and Duhamel. The couple seems to be ‘real’ during the film. This is the duo that would show up together at a frat party, have a fight and then break-up, only to get back together again six months later. When they quip at each other you see the chemistry. When they create drama together (take for example the moment they find out their friends have died and they have shock and horror on their faces) you believe it. They were great picks for the leading roles.
Second, the anxiety. When you know characters are doing the ‘wrong’ thing in the films you feel some sort of anxiety. For example, when the social worker turns up in the film you feel just a bit of strain like Holly and Messer. You understand that these parents are doing what they can and learning as they go. You also understand that if they make a mistake there is a very real possibility that Sophie is going to get taken away. All of these moments of anxiety, especially towards the end (which I’m not going to reveal) are very real and good for the overall story. The characters create the moments perfectly and the writers know just when to throw the moments in. Stories are more and less rollercoasters for audiences to ride along on. You have great moments and you’ve got scary moments, and this movie balances those out pretty well.
Finally, the confusion. The confusion is related directly to that balance in the previous paragraph. Sometimes the up and down of a story lasts just a bit too long, and this is the downfall of Life as We Know It. The movie suffers from about ’20 minutes too long’. You’ll know exactly when the movie should have ended, but you’ll be dumbfounded that it still continues and creates a new dip for absolutely no good reason. It’s as if the writers weren’t completely confident of an ending and needed a bit more time to re-establish the same ending. It’s unnecessary and it hurts the story. I can’t tell you the ending, mainly because you should watch the film, but be forewarned that it’s there… twice.
So does this ‘confusion’ make the movie bad? Certainly not. For any budding parent out there or ‘about-to-be’ parent, you’ll find this movie full of factual information that might help you along the way. Outside of this it does have some great entertaining moments, such as when Heigl gets poo on her face (that sort of dirty of beauty can only be rivaled by Brad Pitt’s role in Fight Club). However, as an overall package the movie trips itself walking down a longer path to the finish, when it should have gotten in the car and road off in the sunset well beforehand.
With all of this said, let’s talk about the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray portion of the film is great, as you get a beautiful 1080p picture with this release. There are literally no artifacts in the picture and it will look superb on any HD screen. I’m really happy they didn’t release a 3D version of this film, as you probably would have been petrified more than if you watched a horror movie (no one wants to see poo in 3D). Anyway, it was another shining example of how well Warner Home Video takes care of its titles. The audio was damn good too, but this isn’t an action film or a horror film, so you won’t really notice it if you’re not looking/hearing it. Of course, one of the more delightful moments to the ear was seeing Messer’s motorcycle crash (he wasn’t on it) and then get promptly hit by a bus. The sound effects will make you cringe (in a good way).
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
· A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting
· Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever
· Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer
· Deleted Scenes
The features included go along with the theme of the film perfectly. You get a very interesting parent’s guide, some great moments with Heigl and Duhamel and some decent deleted scenes. The only things that were missing from this were commentary from the director/crew/cast and, I’m so disappointed this was not featured in this list, outtakes. Give me some outtakes! Such a huge disappointment that outtakes were not included because there had to be moments of funny somewhere outside the script.