I Don't Know How She Does It

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Myers, Olivia Munn, Busy Philipps, Jane Curtin
Directed by: Douglas McGrath
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An executive (Sarah Jessica Parker) tries to juggle an overwhelming job, two kids, her husband (Greg Kinnear) and more, while keeping her sanity.

Review:

Tim: I wasn't a very big fan of I Don't Know How She Does It. The movie focuses most of its time and energy on all of the problems that Sarah Jessica Parker's character has. The movie glorifies these problems by saying "I don't know how she does it!" It's amazing that this woman has to juggle her work, her family, and all the ups and downs of being a wife and a mother. It's just amazing how amazing she is! The sad thing is that this movie features a character with problems shared by millions of other women in this country and around the world. On one hand, the film does bring to light the plight of many women. On the other hand, so many women have suffered far worse than this character. It felt a bit weak and a little bit like "rich people problems."

This could have been a more effective movie if it just made us care a bit more about the characters. The movie is mostly about Sarah Jessica Parker, which was a bummer for me because I really don't like her at all. I don't believe she is a good actress and I don't like her on screen. I wasn't invested in her character at all and I didn't sympathize with her problems. That's not a good way to start the movie.

Parker isn't very good in the lead role. I just didn't believe her performance. There were some awful acting moments. I thought the lice scene was just so stupid. She didn't seem believable in the least and as such, it was painful to get through. She's overrated as an actress. I thought Greg Kinnear did a good job, but his role was too small and throwaway to make any difference. Pierce Brosnan was better and I enjoyed his performance to a certain extent. This wasn't a very glamorous role because he's really just staying in the shadow of Parker, but he did well with what he had to work with. Olivia Munn didn't do a very good job, simply because she's a pretty bad actress. She did have a few funny moments, but overall, her performance was weak.

The movie just felt like it was watered down. The movie never really challenges us as an audience, it simply spoon feeds us the lowest common denominator, dumbed down female-centric "comedy". There's a scene with a mistakenly sent message that is so obvious and so lame that it greatly hurt the movie. It just felt like no one was really trying too hard to make this something other than the rote and redundant.

I Don't Know How She Does It is a forgettable, silly, self-congratulatory movie focused on making working moms feel better about themselves. I just didn't care for it very much at all.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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