I Don’t Know How She Does It

A working mother (Sarah Jessica Parker) tries to juggle job and family without short-changing husband (Greg Kinnear), boss (Kelsey Grammer) or her partner on a major project at the office (Pierce Brosnan), and you know what? It’s really, really hard! This banal insight is all Aline Brosh McKenna’s script (from Allison Pearson’s novel) has to say, and the movie’s arc is thuddingly predictable. What saves things from becoming entirely dreary is its cast—Christina Hendricks as Parker’s best friend, Olivia Munn as her workaholic assistant, Seth Myers as an office scumbag, and Jane Curtin as Kinnear’s mother. Director Doug McGrath keeps things moving right along—remarkable, since nothing really happens. Parker’s voice-over narration makes the movie sound like a PG-13 episode of Sex and the City.