凯瑟琳·海格尔新片《我们所知道的生活》

Life As We Know It

Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) runs a food shop in Atlanta called Fraiche, while Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel), known as Messer, is a cocky*, womanizing* man who directs live sports events on television.

The movie’s liveliest scene is its opening pre-credit* sequence in which Messer picks up Berenson for a blind date* arranged by their best friends (Hayes MacArthur and Christina Hendricks). Arriving an hour late on a motorcycle with no dinner reservations and a post-date tryst* already lined up, Messer is the kind of guy who used to be called a toxic* bachelor.

In the following months the two ignore* each other at social events. But when their friends, who have a new baby girl, die in a car accident, they are horrified* to find themselves named co-guardians of the child. If they accept the responsibility, they will have to live together in their friends’ house. After much debating*, they agree to take on the challenge. From here, “Life As We Know It” turns into a sitcom*.

Sophie, who is played by three children, is a somewhat colicky* infant. There are the inevitable* spit-up and dirty-diaper incidents.

Time spent under the same roof steadily erodes* Berenson and Messer’s mutual loathing*, and the rom-com happens. But then their upward career trajectories* kick in and create new problems.

It’s hard to believe that surrogate* parenthood would mellow Messer to the point that in less than a year he would be a caring, self-sacrificing goody-two-shoes*.

Heigl’s wide-eyed Berenson is all sharp angles. It is a bright, shiny, slightly unnerving* performance delivered with an oversize, fire-breathing self-assurance. The screenplay gives Berenson an alternative chance at happiness by throwing in a Dr. McDreamy in the person of Sophie’s handsome, empathetic* divorced pediatrician* (Josh Lucas). The movie’s attention to detail and to tying up loose ends adds to its too-long running time (115 minutes), and you wait impatiently* while “Life As We Know It” finishes its final laps. (SD-Agencies)