I Don't Know How She Does It
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: September 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
17
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeySep 15, 2011
In describing the conflict of a woman who has it all without enjoying it all, Pearson's book had teeth. McKenna's screenplay has only a smile. But is it ever good to laugh. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 15, 2011
The unfortunate ending, which wallows in artifice, is superficial and saccharine, and unworthy of the material that precedes it. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleSep 15, 2011
The humor tends to be broad, but the spritely pace doesn't allow for too much lingering on the jokes that don't land (really, we've seen enough morning sickness bits to make us gag). Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 16, 2011
From the wry narration to the girlish mannerisms, Parker really does turn this film into "Sex and the Kiddies." Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonSep 13, 2011
Director Douglas McGrath's empathy rescues it from the brink of disaster porn - it's so good-hearted and optimistic that a swath of stressed out moms will feel the flick speaks directly to them, which it does. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 12, 2011
Yes, I cringed at the casting, too, especially when, watching the trailer, I heard Parker deliver the narration in the same voice she used for Carrie in "Sex and the City." But Kate is funnier - less arch - than Carrie, and Parker reminds you what a dizzy, all-in, high-risk comic actress she can be when she's not too busy showing off the couture. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenSep 12, 2011
Amusing, but formulaic, romantic comedy. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJody MitoriSep 16, 2011
Like its main character, I Don't Know How She Does It tries to do everything, but it doesn't quite succeed. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsSep 15, 2011
It's not that I Don't Know How She Does It tells actual lies about working motherhood - many of its observations and jokes are on point - it's just that it omits the edge, the desperation of a woman on the verge. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 15, 2011
Has nothing remotely new or comical in its arsenal. In fact, this vacuous farce has nothing original to say about marriage, working parenthood, child-rearing or corporate America. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonSep 15, 2011
It's smart, swanky, and good-looking, but strangely, it's not all that funny. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 15, 2011
Doesn't know how to do what I think it's trying to do. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 15, 2011
For the first 30 minutes I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a really promising pilot for network TV. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonSep 14, 2011
In theory, the film is another hoary exploration of the pressures of modern womanhood, but in practice, it offers the exact same thing as those NYC ingénue books: cookie-cutter wish-fulfillment and lifestyle porn for easily pleased, lonely romantics. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreSep 14, 2011
She (Parker) looks exhausted, first scene to last, and that fatigue spills off the screen onto us. Read full review
50
VarietyRonnie ScheibSep 12, 2011
Sarah Jessica Parker's myriad fans will doubtless appreciate her frazzled warmth in a part she energetically inhabits, but the picture at times feels out of step with contemporary reality and humorless in its adaptation of a comic bestseller. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensSep 17, 2011
I Don't Know How She Does It feels like a relic from the "Sex and the City" boom times. If there were even a passing nod to economic reality - for example, an acknowledgement that not all stay-at-home mothers are pampered trophy wives who live at the gym - this self-satisfied domestic comedy might not leave behind such a tinny taste. Read full review
40
SalonMary Elizabeth WilliamsSep 16, 2011
The major drawback of I Don't Know How She Does It, however, is Parker herself. She seems pathologically drawn to characters who don't possess believable flaws or complications -- just annoying tics. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 15, 2011
If Kate's hyperkinetic cheer and shrill self-absorption are Carrie trademarks, 13 years after "Sex and the City" first appeared on television, their appeal has all but evaporated. I Don't Know How She Does It seems stuck in the past. Read full review
40
MovielineAlison WillmoreSep 15, 2011
After a while, you stop hoping she'll tell her family to suck it up and watch some TV and then drink a bottle of rosé all by herself, and instead settle for wishing she'd develop a smidgen of self worth. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeHayley KaufmanSep 15, 2011
Occasionally veers so far into absurdity that it manages to make its central character - capable, smart, working mom Kate Reddy - look like a nitwit. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumSep 14, 2011
The second insurmountable problem is the difference between Parker's performance as a fortysomething banker, wife, and mother musing (in voice-over) at her computer and her previous performance as a single, thirtysomething girl-about-town in "Sex and the City": There is none. I don't know why she does it. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 15, 2011
Long after lice from her children's school infested Kate's scalp, I was scratching my head about why a 91-minute movie seemed so long. The answer came from reframing the question. Why was a string of sitcom problems stretched to 91 minutes? Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonSep 13, 2011
She is also played by Sarah Jessica Parker, a performer so aggressively determined to make us like her that no work-life conflicts in the film ever gain any traction; we're too distracted by the actress's manic tics (the head tilts, the popping of the wounded-deer eyes) to notice any real adversity. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithSep 16, 2011
The good news about I Don't Know How She Does It is that it's so bad that it's another ovary-punch to the formula chick flick. Bring on more films like "Bridesmaids." Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterSep 15, 2011
It's a going-through-the-motions domestic comedy that makes, say, "Cheaper By The Dozen" look like a heart-warming, cutting-edge laugh riot. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSep 15, 2011
Spiffy-looking, well-intentioned but ultimately witless film. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundSep 14, 2011
The witticisms are delivered via a suffocating glut of audience hand-holding, which includes constant doc-style confessionals, whimsical on-screen text, studio-audience sound effects, voices in Kate's head, and voiceover narration. Read full review
20
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaSep 14, 2011
It's definitely not taking advantage of a talented supporting cast, as Greg Kinnear, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers and Christina Hendricks are among those wasted. Read full review
20
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 13, 2011
Only Kinnear manages to give his role some shades beyond the broadly farcical, though even he ultimately succumbs to his leading lady's toothy grin and Oprah-sanctioned bromides. Read full review
12
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanSep 15, 2011
Insipid, unfunny and cliche-ridden. Read full review
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