Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

LA Carlson Most of the reviews on this movie are not positive. I would advise skipping many of them because they are wrong. I stumbled upon this on my day off and laughed out loud, was charmed right from the beginning. It's original, smart, a bit sarcastic, breaks the 3rd wall speaking to the audience and has a wonderful cast. It's realistic if you are or have been a working Mom, The writing is on the mark. It's about relationships and living. Parker, Kennear and Brosnan have a subtle, stylish, lovely chemistry. It made my day because it's about the things which do matter. Sometimes those things take awhile to be recognized because standing on principal does matter.

juneebuggy Good cast here, coasting in a brainless, bit of nothing movie. SJP Is working mother 'Kate' who tries to balance her increasingly demanding career with the stress of being the perfect mother to her two children and maintaining her marriage (to a very likable Greg Kinnear)For some reason they have her character doing an ongoing voice-over throughout this movie which gives this a very (alternate universe) Sex & The City feel. Everyone involved is very likable though and its a cute, if predictable story that doesn't require any thought. (Sometimes we need that and I guess that's why they continue to make these chick-flicks.) I enjoyed Olivia Munn's character and Pierce Brosnan was a nice addition. Parker's big speech at the "climactic" ending was god awful, super cheesy and annoying. 8/4/14

Christine Merser I Don't Know How She Does It is really about just how she does do it. That high-powered working mother who navigates the maze of a to-do list longer than a lifespan and a day of activity like a run-on sentence has a method to her madness and a rhythm to her life. She recognizes that her life works, even on the brink of disaster, if all the parts stay oiled and on track. I loved watching it all play out; it was like part of my history that wasn't as clear to me when I was in the eye of it all.That said, the movie has major flaws. I hate that laziness of stopping the action and letting a narrator tell you how you are supposed to feel about something. Every time Kate gets into the elevator and starts to tell us how she is feeling, with all other motion on hold, it irritates the hell out of me. Worse, it's unnecessary. Director Douglas McGrath did a fine job of setting up the characters and the mysteries of their lives, but he should have trusted us to be smart enough to figure it out without his lazy narration. I don't need Momo (Kate's research associate, played brilliantly by Olivia Munn) to tell me who Kate is and what her life is like. Why is it only male directors who seem to feel audiences need that extra explanation. Don't get me started.I think this is the first movie I can recall in which I really wanted the woman to end up with both love interests, not one or the other. I like that about the film. I like that I was sad for Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan), who so deserved to be loved, and happy for Richard (Greg Kinnear), who earned her love over and over again with his acceptance. Isn't it nice that we don't need to have a cad in the movie at all; that accustomed can celebrate that it might be able to work out with more than one person? See this movie just for that aspect; I can't think of another that does that. I must admit I was waiting for one of them to lose because I'm so used to that movie model. Nice change.Best line of the film: "Sometimes just OK is good enough." I must needlepoint that into a pillow and put it in every corner of my life. Knowing when just OK is good enough is the challenge. Knowing which things in our lives don't need to be the best is the challenge. Her house was a bit messy, but it was surely good enough. Her disheveled self could have used more time; but it was good enough. A lot of things were just good enough, and I think that is true for my own life as well. A lot of what I do is just plain good enough, and I must learn to embrace that.Dear Sarah Jessica Parker; I can't lose Carrie Bradshaw when you are on the screen. Sorry. I think you might be better served by making an updated version of Sex in the City every few years so we can see how Carrie and crew cope with the way age changes the landscape of their lives. It's a good career, and one you could be proud to call your own. My movie partner, Aunt Nancy, pointed out that Sarah played the role of wife and mother well, but was not all that believable as a brilliant businesswoman. I am not sure I agree, but I do think that her buffoonery in the business role was just a tad overdone. I'm not sure who could have done it better, but I don't think it was a perfect casting call.Greg Kinnear, are you ever evil? Find that bad side and show it OK? I really would appreciate it. Pierce, you are the bomb as always. The bomb. The man I have always wanted to call my own. I love the bemused look on your face when you look at your women, a look that borders on adoration that borders on awe that borders on lust. Love it. And, for the record, I bowled in college and had a yellow and white swirly bowling ball. Christina Hendricks was too young for the role of Kate's friend. Kelsey Grammar, it's so nice to see you as someone other than what's-his-name. Great facial expressions. Close-ups tell your story.Look, you may not want to acknowledge the truth behind a life like Kate Reddy's. It's complex. It's unfair. It's got no blue-ribbon ceremony at the end, but it is the life of many a woman I call friend, and I loved seeing it on the screen with no underlying evil or downside. I love when she tells her husband at the end that she can't see her life without her career, when you were really expecting her to give it all up for him and the kids. It was a twist, albeit one that might have gone unnoticed. Notice it.A late friend of mine, Bernice Kanner, once told me, "Chris, you can have any of the two out of three that you want: happy marriage, great mothering, brilliant career. But you can't have all three." I have thought of her words often, and I realize that it takes a village to have all three, but it is doable. Forge ahead, fabulous women. Do it all. And take your daughters to see this movie. Especially your teenage daughters who might just think that good is sometimes enough.

Anna Pintus An ironic title for such an obvious and in many ways clichéd plot premise. Directed by Douglas McGrath and adapted from the popular novel by Allison Pearson, the film follows Kate Reddy in her apparent 'struggle' to maintain a work-life balance. A powerful business woman with a loving husband, beautiful children and oodles of cash, it is difficult from the off to see where the problem is. And who, I hear you ask, is the woman to take on this complex and challenging role? Stepping out of her Jimmy Choos and into, well Louboutins, is SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker), perfectly preened as ever, trying and unfortunately failing to convince us that she doesn't even have time to brush her hair in the morning. Whilst Kate flits between Boston and New York, pursuing the deal that could define her career, we are treated to a series of slightly odd and disjointed straight to camera dialogue segments, in which characters completely unrelated to the plot tell us what being a good mother means to them. Case and point is gym bunny Wendy Best (Busy Phillips) who sees working out all day, but making sure she is home for the kids after school, as the quintessential quality of a good mother. Questionable logic at best.Returning to globetrotter Kate, we are teased with the possibility of a burgeoning illicit romance with suave financial big-shot Jack Abelhammer (the ever so wooden Pierce Brosnan). With all the racy instant messaging and exciting evenings out with the 'normal folk' at the bowling lanes, it's a wonder that Kate is able to resist Jack's smooth and symphonic declaration of love. Irony becomes the only way of describing such awkward interaction. Things barely get any better with Richard, (Greg Kinnear) sweet and unassuming, left to play house husband; aside from the full time nanny of course. The lack of chemistry in both of these couplings can at times be painful to watch. On a general note, the film is stripped of all its British wit, the book originally being set in London, for American schmaltz. SJP doesn't even bring to the film the sassy 'woman who has it all' vibe from her Sex and the City days. There is no true sense of a woman on the edge, as the title suggests. The film addresses the right issues: the struggles of motherhood, from finding pancake batter on a suit lapel to the nightmare of nits are all explored, but they are not taken to the point of desperation to prompt empathy or even sympathy in the viewer. The film wraps with a thought provoking moral…as the snow conveniently begins to fall outside the school gates Kate can finally fulfill the important promise she made to her children to, wait for it, build a snow man.