Raising Sophie
When their friends set them up on a date things couldn't have gone worse for Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) with them never even making out on the date due to Eric arranging a booty call for later that evening. Despite this the two of them end up godparents to their friend's baby, Sophie. something which has unexpected consequences. When their friends are killed in a car crash Holly and Eric find themselves as guardians to a baby with neither of them knowing anything about parenthood and having to share a home.
As someone who loves a TV movie I had to smile as browsed a few reviews of "Life as We Know It" as there were some familiar movies mentioned which this movie reminded people of, such as "Baby Boom" and "Raising Helen". But there was one movie I didn't see mentioned, it is a TV movie called "Raising Waylon" which sees two people who had a failed blind date raising a baby together after their friends died and they were named guardians. Whether intentional or not "Life as We Know It" shares a few similarities with the earlier "Raising Waylon" but of course with better production values being a big screen take on the story.
Now unless you have either never seen one of these 'instant family' movies before or a Katherine Heigl rom-com it has to be said that "Life as We Know It" is predictable from start to finish. Actually not entirely true as the set up seems to go on for a while and there is a genuinely touching moment when the friends die and Holly is with the police. But once the set up is in place and we have Holly and Eric in the same house trying to raise a baby we get all the usual jokes from diaper dilemmas to scheduling conflicts as well as sleepless nights and projectile food. But where as the trend in modern comedies has been to be gross out most of what makes up "Life as We Know It" is pleasantly family friendly and mostly funny.
Of course a big part of "Life as We Know It" is the appeal of Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel in a predictable romantic tale, come on you know how it will end the minute the movie starts. And whilst Heigl basically plays rom-com Heigl she is entertaining in that sort of role as is Duhamel as the player who enjoyed picking up girls and having one night stands. But trust me these characters are of the generic variety which you will forget probably before you watch another movie.
What this all boils down to is that not only is "Life as We Know It" familiar but like junk food it might entertain whilst watching it has no substance to make it memorable or to make you feel like you need to watch it again any time soon.
Tags: Instant Families
