Film Review: Sarah Jessica Parker in ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’

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CHICAGO – She produced and starred in one of the great TV-to-film franchises of the last 15 years. She has made millions in endorsements for the fashion industry. She is married to a prominent celebrity who once played Ferris Bueller. Regarding Sarah Jessica Parker, “I Don’t Know How She Does It.”

Rating: 1.5/5.0

That exclamation regarding Parker’s achievements is also the title of her latest film, where Ms. P trades “Sex and the City” for Mommy guilt in the city. This is based on a novel by Alice Pearson, which can be characterized as “upper middle class porn.” It’s not enough to have the double income, childcare help and a high-level job, there has to be a pink-covered literary tome and film version extolling those traits as either marvelously difficult or the second coming of motherhood. Both book and film require a squelching of the gag reflex (both in choking and humor).

Sarah Jessica Parker is Kate, who is introduced in a bizarre documentary style, worshiped for her ability to have two children, a husband AND a well-endowed job at a financial institution (obviously set before “too big to fail”). Part of the documentary has the perfect, stay-at-home mothers (represented by a work-out queen played by Busy Phillipps) dumping on the working mother. Kate travels at lot, leaving her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) to deal with the home front, which causes questioning and guilt. Kate also makes lists in her head, leaving behind the energy-enhancing sleep that most likely caused the market meltdown.

After coming up with a new financial product (which suspiciously seems like a 401K), she must put in even more hours, which leaves her rival Bunce (Seth Meyers) on her six-inch heels, her associate Momo (Olivia Munn) at her bidding and her best friend Allison (Christina Hendricks) flexing her ample bosom in admiration. When Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan), the banker associated with the potential new fund, starts revealing a crush on our heroic Mom, the balance of home, work and life just added another wrinkle, next to the stain on her blouse that she hilariously can’t have cleaned (because she has no time!).

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “I Don’t Know How She Does It”

Working Mom: Sarah Jessica Parker as Kate and Pierce Brosnan as Jack in ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn for The Weinstein Company

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “I Don’t Know How She Does It”