Review: Life as We Know It (12A)***

A rom-com packed with life lessons, Life as We Know It has split audiences in the United States.

Half see it as a perfectly constructed screwball comedy packed with all the little nuances of life that surround caring for a baby. The other 50 per cent see a clumsy attempt at humour that involves child abandonment and casual mental and psychological abuse.

The truth is that Greg Berlanti's frequently laugh-out-loud flick is a hybrid of all of the above. It contains enough standards – baby poo, baby sick, cute smiley moments – to send the average adult completely gaga (or goo-goo) while offering up two good-looking stars with real chemistry.

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Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel are the mismatched pair who end

up looking after their friends' baby when said perfect couple are killed in a freak car accident.

They've little in common – with each other or the baby – and quietly loathe one another, particularly after their pals set them up on a blind date that went spectacularly awry.

Two years on, they are faced with the dilemma of their lives. The child is an orphan and needs parents. And they have been made guardians by their best friends. The fact that they didn't know a thing about the arrangement is of little consequence.

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Life as We Know It is Hollywood fluff at its finest. It presents a classic odd couple – a marriage phobic playboy and a pretty singleton – within a tired storyline that ticks all the boxes and emerges as winningly formulaic.

This fairytale rom-com with babies will satisfy many. But just as many will feel uncomfortable watching "hilarious" scenes where Duhamel drops the baby and later abandons her with a friendly cab driver.

The film's biggest loser is Josh Lucas, playing a warm-hearted MD. He drifts in and out of the plot to add weight to the fragmenting relationship. It's a nothing role that he can do little with but he's always a winner.

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