Rated M; 114 minutes. Out now.
You know what's going to happen here five seconds into the trailer. Boy meets girl, boy and girl don't get on, boy and girl become co-parents' to their dead friends' baby, move in together and hook up - with a token speedbump thrown in.
Said girl is single control freak Holly (romcom veteran Katherine Heigl) and said boy is laidback player Messer (Fergie's hunky hubby Josh Duhamel). Their lives and careers - hers as a bakery entrepreneur and his as a director for televised sports matches - are upturned by baby Sophie, played by the Clagett triplets and outshone only by an amusingly blunt social worker (Sarah Burns).
Bubs provides the cuteness factor and enough poo and puke gags to put you off parenthood. And the otherwise stale dialogue throws up the odd sparkler, like this from a henpecked neighbour: "Marriage is like a prison where they don't change anything."
But the main problem here is the implausible premise. What kind of parents don't ask their child's prospective guardians if they concur? It's not something you forget to mention. And I just don't buy that the parents planned this as a sort of extended blind date. It's more, as Messer muses, an "interesting psychological experiment".
The transition from "can't stand each other" to "can get along" works - just - but the romance is forced.
What could be Romcom As We Know It is the movie equivalent of comfort eating: no pain au chocolat, but a donut you've tried before.
-Herald On Sunday / View
