Oh wait, I do! Sarah Jessica Parker is trying to prove that she can play other roles besides Carrie Bradshaw, when really she just hasn’t found the right one yet.

‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ is a 90-minute long, unfunny sitcom exploiting the idea behind mommy guilt and career woman syndrome. Mommy guilt is when the mother works (a lot) and feels guilty for leaving her children at home, even more so when the husband is also well invested in his career.

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Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker) is an awkward financial executive, a wife, mother and the breadwinner in the family. She never appears ready for anything and throughout the whole movie her hair, make-up and sometimes wardrobe is a complete mess. Her husband (Greg Kinnear) and two young children miss her terribly when she has to travel for work, therefore having the plot center around the guilt trip. Kate hates being stuck between her family and career, yet she still doesn’t seem to have a grasp onto either.

Kate is definitely depicted more as a career woman than a mom in the film. She can’t resist traveling 2-3 days a week to meet with her firm’s newly acquired client, Jack (Pierce Brosnan, still breathtakingly handsome), who plays the all-mighty businessman nicely. Jack presents the possibility of something anew in Kate’s life, but its not carried out and never developed as another option.

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Although I didn’t watch the television show, “Sex and the City,” I did see the original movie. It was obviously intended for a female audience but it was also fun and spirited. Unfortunately, the sequel is a disappointment as the spirit that these girls previously embodied is replaced with a more serious tone, and a clichéd and boring storyline.

The movie starts off with Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) reflecting on her long-term friendship with her three best friends (Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha). The four of them all arrive at a gay wedding of a friend of theirs. The wedding is flamboyant and over-the-top but does not seem to mean much to the married couple. One of the “brooms” informs the girls that his partner is free to cheat on him in the marriage. The person overseeing the ceremony is Liza Minnelli as herself.  Liza goes on to deliver a fun, fluffy and entertaining musical performance. This, though, is the film’s highlight.

The story then goes on to focus on the lives of the four best friends in New York. Carrie is having difficulties in her marriage with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who has settled into a routine of ordering in food and watching a lot of television, even when his wife’s talking to him. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is raising her children with the help of a babysitter, but she starts getting nervous that her husband might be attracted to the nanny. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) faces work difficulties and feels like her boss does not like or appreciate her. The over-sexualized Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is getting older and ferociously trying to prevent aging from occurring. (more…)

You can find today’s Gregalogue, “People Died, WaPo Lied,” over at BigJournalism.com!

Tonight, we’ve got Chris Cotter, Imogen Lloyd Webber, Tom Shillue, and my mom! Also a very special Joshua McCarroll segment!

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This month’s Exhibit P proving Hollywood’s no longer money-driven.

Nearly 60 million Americans wanted Sarah Palin for their Vice President, including most of Middle-America. These voters are the folks this holiday-timed studio film will kinda need in order to see some kind of profit. Sure, the sophisticates will ask us to take a joke but after everything the cruel Left has put this woman and her family through, no matter how good-natured the presentation, another Palin-as-yokel joke just feels like cheap piling on — because that’s exactly what it is.    (more…)

The movie business is not generally kind to women when they pass the age of 40, and Julia Roberts (now 41) is learning that lesson the hard way. The former Pretty Woman has returned to the big screen this weekend in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity (Universal), and one prominent blogger wrote this headline:

Duplicity soft: Julia’s Comeback? Audiences Say Go Back

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in the fun, smart DUPLICITY, from writer/director Tony Gilroy

Roberts’ last starring role was in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile ($63.8M domestic), and since then she has become a full-time Mom. Overall, she has 8 movies on her resume that have reached $100M in the US with her as a lead (I’m not including the Ocean’s Eleven franchise). Her most successful string of movies started in 1997 with My Best Friend’s Wedding ($127.1M cume) and ended with her Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovich ($125.6M cume). During that span, she starred in 6 movies, generating an average of $115M in domestic box office.

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Hollywood execs seem to be waking up to the power of women at America’s multiplexes. The success of He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros) and this weekend’s Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney) can be traced to Meryl Streep’s witty riff on the tyrannical Anna Wintour in The Devil Wears Prada in the summer of 2006. Prada opened to a $27.5M weekend on its way to a $124.75M domestic cume (Streep also earned an Oscar nomination).

Then in July of 2007, New Line grabbed an almost identical $27.47M with the opening weekend of the female-skewing Hairspray, translating to $118.87M domestic. Also Enchanted, starring Amy Adams, was a hit for Disney over the holidays reaching $127.8M domestic.

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