I Don’t Know How She Does It [2011]

Pretty cast, piss-off execution. And so dies “I Don’t Know How She Does It”, a wannabe chick flick adapted from a 2002 novel by Allie Pearson. Filmmaker Douglas McGrath, who earned praise (at least in my book) for directing “Infamous”,  makes things fairly interesting at first, as we meet  Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker), who must negotiate time-sucking work projects, an annoying rival (Seth Meyers), a demanding boss (Kelsey Grammer), the attention of a colleague played by Pierce Brosnan, and a tightly packed calendar involving two kids, a nanny and her easygoing but worried husband, Greg Kinnear. Here’s the bad news: the plot doesn’t get thicker or anything. In fact, there is sufficient story and character development here to fill out a 20-minute short. Unfortunately, “I Don’t Know How She Does It” runs 90 minutes, and as it ambles along, you can feel the life slowly draining from it. Not surprising really, since the whole movie sounds like an episode of “Sex and the City”. There’s a lot of huffing and puffing to convince audiences that women can multitask. And even with a cast like this one, it still falls flat. This movie must have sounded like a fun idea when McGrath and co decided to make it. Too bad it didn’t turn out better.

Rating: 2/4