I Don’t Know How She Does It MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -2

Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Munn, Greg Kinnear, Jane Curtain, Jessica Szohr, Christina Hendricks, Seth Meyers. . Comedy/drama. Written by Aline Brosh McKenna. Directed by Douglas McGrath.

FILM SYNOPSIS: I Don’t Know How She Does It follows a Boston-based working mother trying desperately to juggle marriage, children, and a high-stress job. Kate Reddy (Parker) devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard (Kinnear) and their two young children.  It’s a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate’s acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison (Christina Hendricks) performs on a daily basis, and that Kate’s super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo (Olivia Munn) fully intends to avoid.  When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he’s been hoping for—and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate’s charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Brosnan), who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

PREVIEW REVIEW: In the film What About Bob, Bill Murray declares, “There are two types of people in this world. Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.” I struggle with that same declaration when it comes to Sarah Jessica Parker. No disrespect meant, but part of her screen persona stems from her ability to endlessly talk, somehow avoiding the perception that she’s a ditz, but only by an extra brain cell or two. Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, her characters never shut up! It is so annoying that it is becomes difficult to assess her films. And in this film, the makers, in all their wisdom, also make her the ever-present narrator.

And what’s all the chatter about? The story concerns go-getter women in the work force. (Did you know that’s it’s difficult for woman to balance home, family and a job all at the same time? There just haven’t been enough films addressing that issue.)

To assure us that the put-upon heroine isn’t a whinny harpy, she has a supporting bawdy BFF, who, from time to time, gripes directly into camera about how much better men have it in the marketplace. (If a man does this, he’s just a guy, but if a woman does that, she’s a shrew. You know the routine.) Sadly, while that may be a valid assertion, it’s also been done to death, and by moviemakers more deft at handling the war-between-men-and-women genre.

Another unwise move by those who constructed I Don’t Know How She Does It: at one point we see the lead couple viewing a movie on television. The film is His Girl Friday, a four-star screwball comedy that sparkles, while this one just sputters.

That’s not to say the film is all bad. There are some laughs, and even a few well-constructed scenes. It’s a pleasant enough weekday matinee escape, which will no doubt be supported by housewives on “me-time.” Now, ladies before you hang me with that last statement, I’m just assuming that’s who the studio is directing the film at. The press screening consisted of three men amid a theater packed with women, many of whom popped open their Kindle-sized cell phones from time to time, no doubt checking home, worried the kiddies may have tied-up the babysitter.

I can only surmise from the female-laden invited audience that the studio is marketing the comedy as a Chick Flick. Interesting though, the characters who come off the best, I mean the ones who aren’t portrayed as one-dimensional stick figures, are the men - Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Kelsey Grammer. These are three fine actors, each adding charm and wit to an otherwise dated and forgettable movie.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: The Weinstein Company