The Unlikeliest Pair

Greg Berlanti knows how to deliver or sneak emotion into his work (one need only take a look at his TV résumé, which includes Dawson’s Creek, Everwood, Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone, and the new No Ordinary Family, to know that), and his second big-screen effort, Life as We Know It, sure proves it.

Starring Katherine Heigl – getting her mojo back after the poor showing of her summer entry Killers – and Josh Duhamel – emerging as a likeable leading man in training at last – this is a dramedy about two people who don’t fall in love but rather in family with each other and the cutest baby girl this side of Michelle Tannerville.

Heigl plays Holly, an up-and-coming, sunny coffee shop caterer in Atlanta, while Duhamel is Messer (he goes by his last name ’cause he’s cool like that), a let-it-rip-type and a rising star in the world of network sports directing.

The two don’t like each other.

What? A movie that will be pigeonholed in the rom-com box with two characters who hate each other? Where could this be headed?

It’s true, though: Holly and Messer attempted to go on a blind date set up by their respective BFF a couple of years ago, but he showed up an hour late – and then took a booty call right in front of her – and she, of course, gave him (and her gal pal who played matchmaker) a piece of her mind about it.

Over the course of the next, what, couple of years, they stayed in each other’s lives. It happens when you’re named your friend’s maid of honor or best man, or the godparent to their child, just FYI. So Holly and Messer learned to tolerate and get some enjoyment out of needling each other.

After their besties die in a car accident, they have to rearrange their lives because they become the legal guardians to Sophie, that adorable baby girl I mentioned earlier (played by triplets who should get baby awards for cooing on cue). Their lives turned upside down, they have to set aside their differences and get it together. A lot of it is played for laughs, natch, but there are moments of real poignancy in this movie, which elevate it out of Generictown.

And yes, Holly and Messer get closer as Life as We Know It progresses. They become friendlier toward each other, and supportive of each other and their separate interests (in her case that includes a doctor fellow she met at her coffee shop, a dashing man played by Josh Lucas; in his, a bunch one night stands). They make themselves a bit of a home, of a family, just like they’re meant to.

The two of them just sort of...happen. Then a romance blossoms. But life throws them another curveball, because that’s what it does, right.

Life as We Know It works because it keeps things grounded in reality.

Yeah, sometimes it idealizes things a little, but that’s what movies like this one are supposed to do, after all, but it should keep you guessing.

I think that that’s what makes it a bit different, and why it works. Heigl is warmer in this one than in her previous offerings (and than she seems in real life), and Duhamel makes for a enjoyable partner for her – and us – to want to have as a support system. But do they end up together? That you’ll have to see for yourself.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Warner Bros.