'Life as We Know It'

Katherine Heigl plays a successful, uptight, but romantically-minded single female who meets a successful, carefree, somewhat self-centered man (I would even go so far as to say a man whore) and is instantly repulsed.

No, this isn’t “The Ugly Truth.” At least, not quite. Different names, scenery, different leading man…but you’ve seen this movie before: Two people who hate each other are thrown into a situation where they’re forced to spend lots of time together and realize that they actually don’t hate each other.

Holly (Heigl) is best friends with Alison (Christina Hendricks). Alison is married to Peter (Hayes MacArthur). Peter is best friends with Eric Messer, aka Messer (Josh Duhamel). In the opening scene, a pre-marriage Alison and Peter decide to set up their best friends on a blind date with each other.

Messer arrives an hour late and acts like a tool – even setting up a date with another woman while in the car with Holly – establishing himself as the carefree playboy. Holly gets snippy and refuses to get on Messer’s motorcycle, establishing herself as the uptight shrew. They decide to not finish the date.

Rather than being put off by this, Alison and Peter get married, have a baby, and make Holly and Messer the godfather of their daughter, Sophie (played by three equally adorable little girls).

Then we watch these grown ups’ lives revolve around christenings and birthday parties for Sophie’s first year of life. I’ve never really understood why you’d have 45 of your closest friends over for your baby’s birthday, but I suppose it was necessary to introduce the obligatory “wacky” set of neighborhood players who do little for the film, other than provide a few marginal laughs and remind us all why it’s ok to not be best friends with half the neighborhood.

Then tragedy strikes, and Alison and Peter bequeath their most prized possession – Sophie – to their two best friends. The condition is that Holly and Messer must move in together, in Alison and Peter’s house, and raise Sophie together.

Holly has to adjust her control issues to accommodate a baby who doesn’t always sleep or eat exactly as she should. Messer has to learn what it’s like to actually have any sort of a schedule, rather than coming and going as he pleases. Sophie has to endure two people who somehow managed to reach adulthood without knowing how to change diapers or identify baby food. It’s less than ideal, but we all make sacrifices.

They don’t think they can do it. Their case worker doesn’t think they can do it. The neighbors have bets on how soon Holly and Messer will “do it.” I’m guessing you know what happens.

Despite being incredibly predictable, it’s still watchable. Heigl reprises the quirkly control freak role, doing it as well as she always does, and Duhamel is able to pull off annoying and charming at the same time. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, several cutesie montages and one super cute baby.

Thank god they’re both super attractive, because otherwise the whole operation might have been a bust – and then what would have become of poor Sophie?