First comes baby, then comes love, in 'Life as We Know It'

Let’s lay out the premise of “Life as We Know It,” the latest Hollywood romantic comedy to come rolling off the conveyor belt. Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) is the organized, hardworking, attractive blonde. Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) is the motorcycle-riding, woman-seducing stud. They can’t stand each other, but because they are both best friends with the same married couple, they keep running into one another. When the couple dies in a car crash, Holly and Messer find out that their friends’ will leaves their orphaned 1-year-old, Sophie, as well as their suburban Atlanta estate, to them — together. With reluctance, they move in and take up the challenge of mutually hostile, unplanned parenthood.

And the rest of the film? Well, I won’t waste my ink or your time, because it’s pretty obvious what happens next.

Of course, being predictable isn’t necessarily a death sentence, especially for romantic comedies — which, let’s face it, are often so hackneyed that they can come off as parodies of their own genre. But individual situations can put a new spin on the old cliches: We know where they’ll end up, but it’s how they get there that matters.

Possibly because the writers of “Life as We Know It” are still babies themselves (this movie is their film debut), we aren’t given much new material. The guy rejects his freewheeling lifestyle when he realizes that love and family are all he needs. The baby poops. The girl realizes that the guy she thought she hated had been Mr. Right all along. The baby poops. The screenwriters aren’t even afraid to recycle that most classic of romantic comedy cliches: the time-honored airport chase scene (I have never once seen or heard about this happening in real life).

Heigl and Duhamel fare relatively well in the confining mainstream roles they are given. There’s no doubt they have chemistry, a testament mostly to Heigl’s talent of working with other actors (remember her in “Knocked Up”?). But a whole lot of their screen time is wasted on stale slapstick comedy and, of course, on the fluids spewing out of the baby’s every orifice.

It’s a shame, especially given that the film starts off with an electric encounter between the two leads. Having been set up on a blind date by their two friends, Holly and Messer meet up — and personalities clash hard. It’s a quick, witty, piquant exchange that — once it gives way to the lackluster bulk of the film — leaves you with the baby blues.

2 Paws

Pros: Heigl and Duhamel have decent chemistry.