I Don’t Know How She Does It

(M) Roadshow DVD

Sarah Jessica Parker’s post Sex and the City body of work generally contains movies that insult both her own and her audience’s intelligence. Yet, for reasons I can’t fathom, I like her.

Not everyone does. A Maxim magazine poll actually awarded her the title of “Unsexiest Woman Alive”. Ouch.

This movie isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s smart at times. SJP plays a working mother trying to juggle her dream job with a family. We’re not silly. We know exactly how she does it. She has a nanny and a supportive husband, for a start.

Attempts at raw reality are overshadowed by frothiness but people will still watch this. And by people I mean women, of course. Women that I’d assume wish to be entertained but also empowered.

Why are the female protagonists of these sorts of movies inevitably accident-prone? It’s like there’s a list of prerequisites: Great hair? Check. Desperate to be taken seriously? Check. Trips over everything in sight? Check!

It’s as if ditzy equals endearing. Or that we’ll forgive her for her 0% body fat, perfect apartment, high powered job and eternal blow-dry if she consistently makes a fool of herself. Oh, look! She’s human after all. Awww.

Any self-respecting chick flick contains a love triangle and this is no different with husband (Greg Kinnear) and co-worker (Pierce Brosnan) vying for our girl’s affections.

Throw into the mix a sassy, supportive bestie (Christina Hendricks), girly rivals (stay at home mum Busy Phillips), a demanding boss (Kelsey Grammer), a scheming co-worker (Seth Meyers) and the now tired question, “Can women have it all?”

After the shenanigans subside the answer is, of course, yes — if you follow your heart … Or something.

I want to tell you that I hated it, but I didn’t. My raging cynicism is no match for the inexplicable allowances I make for SJP. She can act as wide-eyed as she likes but she doesn’t fool me for a second: anyone who makes a career out of this sort of nonsense is one smart lady.

Jasmine Edwards