Review: Life As We Know It Blu-ray

STUDIO: Warner | DIRECTOR: Greg Berlanti | CAST: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, Christina Hendricks, Hayes MacArthur, Jessica St. Clair
RELEASE DATE: 2/8/11 | PRICE: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack $35.99, DVD $28.98
BONUSES: deleted scenes, three featurettes, digital copy
SPECS: PG-13 | 115 min. | Romantic comedy | 2.35:1 widescreen | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Life As We Know It, a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses), is, well, yet another romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl. That said, you probably know what’s in store for you if you’ve never seen one before. Maybe we can just let the movie’s story do the talking…

Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel baby around in Life As We Know It.

Caterer Holly (Heigl) and TV sports director Messer (Josh Duhamel) dislike each other, but find something in common in their love for their infant goddaughter, Sophie. That love suddenly finds itself here to stay and grow when Sophie’s parents (She’s Out of My League‘s Hayes MacArthur and Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks) are killed in a car accident and Holly and Messer are forced to put their differences aside to live under the same roof and raise Sophie. An hour-and-a-half of soiled diapers, career developments and disastrous dinner parties later, guess who’s falling in love…?

Again, one knows what to expect when popping in this kind of film, which over recent years has been following such a well-worn template that even the minor details are starting to look the same, just as the characters’ careers are beginning to overlap. (Are there any unemployed caterers, party planners and TV producers in Hollywood movies?)

The cast follows the rules of the genre and look great in the process. Actually, everything in Life As We Know It looks exceptionally fine in high-definition Blu-ray, from the suburbs’ blue skies and green lawns to the broadcast booth where Duhamel plies his trade to the baby poop accidentally splotched on Heigl’s cheek in the film’s There’s Something About Mary “adorable” gross-out moment.

Like the film, the bonus features are competent but unspectacular. A bunch of deleted scenes confirm that the movie was indeed bloated and that additional cutesy baby stuff was superfluous. One of the trio of featurettes fawns over the leading lady (“People really like to see her in these movies,” gushes producer Paul Brook), while another spotlights the cast offering advice on baby-rearing.

This is the fifth rom-com for star/exec producer Ms. Heigl in the past four years (remember last year’s Killers or 2009’s The Ugly Truth?) and it may be time for her to play a role in another kind of movie. Maybe a change of genre will remind everyone that gorgeous, intelligent women aren’t always hurting for male companionship and Ms. Heigl’s talents can be utilized for more than just formulaic happy endings.

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