Movie review: 'I Don't Know How She Does It'

What do you get when you mix talented actors (Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear), a screenplay based on a bestselling novel and a topic dear to so many women's hearts -- specifically, how to balance work with a personal life?

If you're thinking "sounds like a great movie," you might be right, but in the case of I Don't Know How She Does It, a lack of good writing is the missing ingredient.

The predictable plot is just one of the problems. Kate Reddy (SJP) works for a high-profile investment firm in Boston. She also has two kids and a husband (Kinnear) who adores her.

Kate is overscheduled, exhausted and conflicted. She finds herself cutting corners as a mom so she can meet the demands of her job. And then she lands a big project at work, and guess what? Things get worse at home, especially when Kate starts spending so much time in New York with the handsome Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan).

The fact that almost every mom -- working either outside or in the home -- has lived some version of this juggling-too-much scenario at some point makes me wonder why the writers didn't come up with some original subplots to ratchet up (OK, to create) tension.

Another problem is that Kate is more cliché than character. She keeps saying that she loves her family and her job, but there's not much tender interaction with her children. There's no sense of what drives her as a working woman.

Instead, there's a series of visual gags and one-liners. Kate trying to get in an elevator at work with party balloons. Kate smushing a store-bought pie to make it look homemade. Kate struggling with her tights, unaware that her video conference call has begun.

Other characters get the same one-note treatment -- from Kate's husband, to her co-workers, to her mother-in-law (poor Jane Curtin) to her frenemies, the stay-at-home moms. The stereotypical pitting of working mom (food on all her dresses!) versus stay-at-home mom (spends the whole morning in the gym!) verged on the offensive.

As a longtime working mom, I have been grateful to moms who didn't have "jobs" but who devoted so many hours to involvement in the schools and organizations my kids were in. Forgive me for not having a sense of humor about it, but pitting moms against each other is destroying the village it takes to raise a child.

I couldn't help but wonder how so many good actors (Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers) wound up in this unclever, tedious comedy. In short, I don't know why they did it.