Review: "Life As We Know It" is Big, Conventional (and Gay-Inclusive) Romantic Comedy

Josh Duhamel, director Greg Berlanti, and Katherine Heigl

Have you noticed how the studio behind Life As We Know It has been increasingly featuring that shot of Josh Duhamel in his white boxer briefs in much of the publicity for the movie? You certainly can't blame them for highlighting one of the movie's major assets. 

In fact, Duhamel's obvious hotness is a (funny) reoccurring joke in the movie, and it's not just women who notice how handsome he is. The movie is set in the suburbs, and the neighbors include a gay couple who spend a fair amount of time ogling Duhamel (and admonishing each other for ogling).

This gay-inclusiveness is only a small part of the movie, but I can't help but think that part of the reason it and other brief gay elements are there is because the movie's director is an out gay men: Greg Berlanti, the writer-director of the gay-themed romantic comedy The Broken Hearts Club, and also a creative force behind TV shows such as Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone, Dawson's Creek, and No Ordinary Family.

Berlanti has always been a big, broad, "mainstream" writer — subtlety is definitely not his middle name — and Life As We Know It is a typical, but successful addition to his oeuvre.

Eric (Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl) are two single people who are set up on a blind date by their respective friends Peter and Alison, but they take such an instant dislike to each other that they don't even make it to the restaurant.

Flash forward a few years, and Peter and Alison, now with a little girl named Sophie, are killed in an accident. Who did they name as guardians for Sophie? 

You guessed it. But there's no one else who can conceivably take the child, so despite the fact that they still (mostly) dislike each other, Eric and Holly move into Peter and Alison's house and start to raise Sophie together as platonic roommates.

You have absolutely no idea where they're going with this, do you?

Life As We Know It's "concerned neighbors, including a gay couple, left

We've seen a lot of the gags before: the "diaper" jokes, the wacky neighbors.

In fact, this is a conventional romantic comedy in almost every respect: he's a womanizing free-spirit, she's an uptight control freak; they hate each other; they both have picture-perfect "visual" professions (she makes cakes in her bakery, he's a TV sports producer); a mid-plot career complication changes everything.

At the same time, there is some genuinely fresh humor here, some of which involves a case worker who comes to check in on them (the resolution to the "airport" scene made me laugh out loud). The movie very much says that raising kids is the be-all and end-all in life, but at the same time, it pokes some very gentle, very affectionate fun at the sleep-less, sex-less life that's required of suburban families with kids.

The movie has a reasonably effective emotional "heart" as well, one that has some gay resonance: can you be a "family" and not even know it?

As I said, it's pretty clear from the start where this story is heading, but they don't cheat. When what happens happens, they've mostly earned it, and they sometimes even surprised me along the way.

There's a key scene where Eric and Holly discover some old movies of Peter and Alison. I was expecting full-on treacle, but instead the movie gives us "realness" — and, as a result, the moment was far more touching than it might've been otherwise.

These days, there are three kinds of romantic comedies: the quirkly, delightful indie efforts like (500) Days of Summer, the contrived, soul-less pieces of studio crap like Valentine's Day, and the broad, but reasonably entertaining mainstream efforts like The Proposal. 

Life As We Know It falls firmly into the last category.