Blu-ray Review: I Don’t Know How She Does It

It can’t be a coincidence that nearly every movie or television show that takes time out to focus on a bowling match usually winds up being a less-than-stellar motion picture; one that, while it may be enjoyable at the time, is easy to erase from your memory banks immediately after it’s over. Kingpin, The Contender, the list goes on — with a few notable exceptions (such as The Big Lebowski or the Italian cheesefest, Alien 2: On Earth), of course. And then there are features like the latest in an unnecessarily-long list of Sarah Jessica Parker flicks Hollywood loves to torture us with on a seemingly-monthly basis: I Don’t Know How She Does It.

In this instance, the tiny portion of the film devoted to time spent in a bowling alley is the one and only highlight — and that’s only because you get to hear Pierce Brosnan try his best at an New York accent. He fails, of course, but that’s probably what made the scene so memorable.

The remainder of I Don’t Know How She Does It, on the other hand, is rather forgettable. The story here, based on Allison Pearson’s novel, tells of a working mother of two (Parker) who performs a delicate, daily juggling act of work, parenting, marriage, and more. Her latest business venture on behalf of her employer (Kelsey Grammer, in a small, unremarkable part) gives her the opportunity to pitch a new idea to legendary financial guru Jack Abelhammer (Brosnan), who keeps his distance from her, but longs to rip her clothes off and pursue the art of mad monkey sex with her nonetheless. Meanwhile, her hubby (Greg Kinnear, who really phones it in) tries to keep the home boat afloat while not reading too terribly much into her working relationship with the handsome British feller.

He, too, fails. But then, so does the whole movie. Christina Hendricks, Seth Meyers, Olivia Munn, and Jane Curtin co-star.

Starz/Anchor Bay give I Don’t Know How She Does It a somewhat spectacular transfer on Blu-ray with a sufficient DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack and optional English (SDH) and Spanish subtitles. The only special features contained on the disc itself is a featurette with the self-explanatory title “A Conversation with Best-Selling Author Allison Pearson.” There was also a coupon inside the case for diapers.com (?), which really makes me wonder what kind of message they’re sending out to all of the working women out there.