A hilarious comedy, “Life as We Know It,” should have been called “Life as We Imagine It,” as the events in the movie are quite uncommon. Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel), two people who can’t stand each other after a failed date, suddenly become legal guardians of their best friends’ daughter, Sophie, after a car accident that left the baby an orphan. They have to live in the same house with their friends’ family pictures all over. In this place everything reminds them about the tragedy. Besides, they have to share their chores while taking care of a baby they have no idea what to do with.
Eventually, in typical romance-comedy fashion, the two characters fall in love and aspire to build their and Sophie’s happiness.
The main characters’ stories and personalities differ a lot. Before getting into all this trouble, Holly was the owner of a successful pastry business on the verge of expanding it to a restaurant. On the contrary to her career, her private life was failure. A gorgeous, tall and slim woman in her early 30s, she has not had a boyfriend in three years. The day before the accident, when things are starting to change and Holly finally agrees to have lunch with the guy she has been thinking about for a long time, Messer brings disorder into her life.
As for Messer himself, he was rather happy before it all happened. He is a charmer, who directs cameras during basketball and other games and rides a motorcycle. Until he became Sophie’s legal guardian, he was enjoying his life immensely. On top of that, he is offered a job he was dreaming about, but it is in Phoenix. Should he leave Holly and Sophie and follow his career path or is his place near his artificially created family? This is the question both Holly and Eric will have to answer as the movie develops.
The complicated plot of “Life as We Know It” brings in a lot of humorous situations. Not knowing how to properly change a baby, Holly ends up with Sophie’s poop on her face. As he needs to work, Messer hires his cab driver as a babysitter, which almost cost him a job. The lives of both will never be the same. The question is: do they find all these events as funny and exciting as we do?
The source of their troubles, Sophie changes Holly’s and Messer’s worlds at the same time. Instead of watching sports, Eric stares at cartoons laughing together with his foster child and Holly learns how feed the daughter who is not hers, “the only person in the world” who doesn’t like Holly’s cooking. It is surprising how dramatic and funny this movie is at the same time.
And it leaves us with an easy feeling. Life as we imagine it always has a happy ending. We understand what we needed to, we restore relationships we cut off and we become happy, just as the movie’s ending suggests.
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