Life As We Know It

Filmmaker Greg Berlanti's romantic dramedy about two unlikely parents begins with a dreadful blind date, as Alison and Peter Novak (Christina Hendricks and Hayes MacArthur) fix up their best friends, Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel). Uptight Holly owns an upscale pastry shop, while Messer (as he likes to be called) is a TV sports director and slick womanizer. It's loathe-at-first-sight for this mismatched pair, who are subsequently forced to tolerate each other at Novak family gatherings and festivities. But when Alison and Peter die in an automobile accident, they leave the care of their beloved baby daughter, Sophie, to her two godparents—the unsuspecting, self-absorbed, and decidedly ambivalent Holly and Messer. Rather than letting orphaned Sophie be turned over to child protective services, the pair move into the Novaks' suburban Atlanta home—despite their mutual animosity—where they gamely learn all about child-rearing with the encouragement of their babysitter (Britt Flatmo), understandably nosy neighbors (Melissa McCarthy, Andrew Daly, Will Sasso), and a vaguely disapproving—and threatening—social worker (Sarah Burns). But then ambitious Messer is offered a lucrative job in Arizona, and lonely Holly finds herself attracted to Sam (Josh Lucas), their sensitive, empathetic pediatrician. A highly improbable, formulaic film, this mildly amusing effort is optional, at best. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (15 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are “A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting” with costars Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel (7 min.), the cast featurettes “Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever” (6 min.) and “Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer” (5 min.), and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a so-so extras package for a disappointing rom-com.] (S. Granger)