Synopsis: As an employee at a Boston-based financial management firm, Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) struggles daily to balance the demands of her high-powered career with the needs of her husband (Greg Kinnear) and children. When she’s handed a major account that requires frequent trips to New York, and her husband gets a new job, Kate finds herself spread even thinner. Complicating Kate’s life even more is new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan), who throws temptation into the mix.
Novel: I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
Release Date: September 16, 2011 MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama
Film Review
Production
Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) does it all. She is a successful financial advisor, loving mother to her two children, and a wife who loves and supports her entrepreneurial husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) completely. I Don’t Know How She Does It is the story about how Kate manages to do it all, and the film is a tribute to every women who manages to juggle her work and personal life in a way that may appear effortless but is anything but on the inside.
We meet Kate in the midst of major life changes that make her list even more difficult to keep track of–the “list” is in fact a list Kate keeps in her head, reminding her of everything she needs to do, or should do, for herself, her family, her career, and her relationship with her husband. These changes catapult the film from domestic rom-com to a dramatic comedy about a woman in crisis. Kate’s crisis being the work/life balance. She has just landed a huge career opportunity with her firm and will be working with the handsome Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan), her husband has also been given the opportunity to succeed with his work venture, her daughter is in Kindergarten and her two-year-old son is experiencing childhood milestones. Life in the Reddy household has always been crazy with Kate’s traveling for work; it is now about to become a wild blur of comings and goings, lists and phone-calls, and for the viewer of I Don’t Know How She Does It an enjoyable ride watching Kate take it all on.
I Don’t Know How She Does It takes the first person narrative approach. As the viewer follows Kate through her balancing act there is a combination of Kate’s voiceover explaining how she keeps it all going, first-person interviews with those close to her, namely her friend Allison (Christina Hendricks), office rival Chris Bunce (Seth Meyers), and single workaholic co-worker Momo Hahn (Olivia Munn). This is a story about Kate’s life, and everything that occurs is from her perspective, giving very little room for development of any other character but the film is more enjoyable due to the fact. Kate is a marvel, planning birthday parties while also challenging herself at work. Her heart breaks each time she packs her suitcase and has to say goodbye to her young children, and she aches when she returns only to get the “snubs & punishments” game from her five-year-old daughter. Being a success in both career and motherhood is tough, and I Don’t Know How She Does It is an honest depiction of how women do it each and every day, with the humor, sensitivity, and drama that comes with life.
Cast and Crew
- Director(s): Doug McGrath
- Producer(s): Aline Brosh McKenna
- Screenwriter(s): Sarah Jessica Parker (Kate Reddy)Christina Hendricks (Allison)Greg Kinnear (Richard Reddy)
- Story: Pierce Brosnan (Jack Abelhammer)
- Cast: Kevin TentCamilla TonioloStuart DryburghSanto Loquasto
- Editor(s):
- Cinematographer: Rachel Portman
- Production Designer(s):
- Costume Designer:
- Casting Director(s):
- Music Score:
- Music Performed By:
- Country Of Origin: USA