I Don't Know How She Does It

Director:  Douglas McGrath
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kelsey Grammer, Christina Hendricks, Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear
Releasing in cinemas: 3 November 2011
Rated: M

You may recall Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1991 comedy L.A. Story as a bouncy young thing, then went on to the fashion-conscious Sex And The City series. Well you can see the bubbly girl is still there in her new movie, albeit as a frantic 40-something working mother desperately juggling a high powered job and a young family at home. 

Kate Reddy (Parker) has a job she loves as investment manager in the Boston branch of a New york based financial firm. This involves juggling a certain amount of travel while trying to keep up with her domestic chores, as she has two demanding children: six year old Emily (Emma Rayne Lyle) and Ben (Theodore and Julius Goldberg), a real little moppet. Husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) has recently started his own architectural business.

Kate is torn between trying to please her generally understanding husband and her tough boss at work, Clark Cooper (Kelsey Grammer), along with Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan) the charming head executive in the New York office. There are problems, such as making a pie for her daughter's school bake sale, when time only allows a bought one to be pressed (rather literally) into service. Frowned upon by the 'monster mums' (those uppity stay-at-home mothers), Kate manages in her frantic way to be equally involved in her children's upbringing, to the point friends wonder how she does it - which is largely by listing impending chores in her head instead of sleeping at night.

When Kate's plan for a new investment fund is enthusiastically received by Jack, he wants to pitch it to a major company. This means Kate will have to spend much more time in New York. Also appears Jack might be forming a crush on her. Meantime Richard has his own problems in his new business, but looks like landing a big contract. Kate's crazy juggling home and career begins in earnest.

Director Douglas McGrath (Emma) has the advantage of a strong cast to support the wildly energetic Sarah Jessica Parker. Christina Hendricks (Drive) puts in the yards as Kate's best friend Allison; Olivia Munn (Iron Man 2) does a great turn as her uptight junior colleague Momo who has a phobia about kids; Greg Kinnear (The Kennedys TV), always 'Mr. Likable', easily fills the role of the ever-patient husband; and Pierce Brosnan (The Ghost Writer) exudes his confident charm. In minor roles, Jane Curtin makes a typically difficult mother-in-law, Busy Phillips a snooty non-working mother, and Seth Myers the weaselly work colleague, Bunce. This movie has the females in the strongest parts.

Based on the novel by Allison Pearson, the screenplay by The Devil Wears Prada scribe Aline Brosh McKenna mostly works, with Sarah Jessica Parker still doing her Carrie Bradshaw delivery. The asides to camera are effective. Looking older in her closeups (as does Pierce Brosnan), Parker's ever bubbling over with infectious nervous energy.  The film's far too glib ending rather lets the side down, and several parts are underwritten.

I Don't Know How She Does It provides pleasant entertainment. Some of the sight gags may bring laughs, like the lice joke which Parker wildly performs. Yet there's more smiles than loud chortles, coupled with a few poignant moments, as when Kate sings a lullaby to her daughter over the phone. Sarah Jessica Parker's unstoppable train wreck of a working mum caught in her mad world of domestic and corporate mayhem, still bubbling along with that bouncy L.A Story spirit, should have a certain appeal - especially to Sex and the City fans.

John Bale