Life As We Know It (2010)

From NetFlix:

Caterer Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and network sports director Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) discover a reciprocal hatred during an ill-fated first date — but are forced to put their feelings aside when their mutual friends die and they become the guardians for orphaned Sophie. Now, Holly and Eric must learn to live with each other and juggle their promising careers while taking care of the little girl in this romantic comedy.

If you are searching for a good date movie AND you are wild about infants and children, then I have a good film for you. If anything this film shows in a realistic way just how all-consuming a task it is to raise a child, let alone to also want a career. In a way, the only contrived part of the scheme was that a dead couple’s will could stipulate guardians for the orphans without the consent of those guardians. And how realistic is it that the man and woman guardians (who supposedly dislike each other) would consent to the idea AND share the house of the deceased parents ? Who cares! It is a fun film with lots of pleasing sight gags.

Katherine Heigl, who plays the woman Holly, played opposite Gerard Butler in “The Ugly Truth”. Josh Duhamel, who plays the man Eric, so far seems to be mostly Major Lennox in the Transformers films. Josh Lucas had significant roles in The Weight of Water (2001) and Around the Bend (2004).

In some way I resent these films in which the characters, of course, live in a million dollar house deep in wooded suburbia. But then wife Kathy says people watch movies for escape. Good luck on that mortgage!

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