Life As We Know It

Stars: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, Hayes MacArthur, Christina Hendricks

Director: Greg Berlanti

Quite apart from the unforgivable sin of killing off Mad Men's Hendricks inside the first 10 minutes, the initial section of this romcom is almost unbearable, as Hendricks and hubby die in a car crash, leaving their one-year-old to the care of their friends Holly, a baker (Heigl) and recording studio manager Messer (Duhamel), who almost went in a date once and can't stand the sight of each other.

Mercifully, changing nappies is kept fairly brief, but the ending is so obvious from the start that we resent spending two hours getting there, and seeing Heigl turn down Lucas, who is so much more charismatic and likeable than Duhamel, playing a slob in the Seth Rogen tradition.

Duhamel is actually OK, but Heigl is just as average as she always is, and any chemistry between them is not discernible on screen. Somehow, though, coming to live with them, so to speak, becomes more acceptable as the film progresses. Women may coo over bits of it, while their male partners suffer.

David Quinlan

USA 2010. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers. Technicolor.
117 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 1.

Review date: 05 Oct 2010