Working-mom comedy compromised by lame dialogue

"I Don't Know How She Does It" operates on the lame and lumbering premise that somebody is running around Boston, interviewing working women to get their views on how they balance their lives between family and business.

Uh, exactly who's interviewing these women? Why are they being interviewed?

The best question is: Why would women who work so hard to preserve their facades of perfection be so willing to admit how flawed and scared they are to an off-camera interviewer we never see?

We never find out the answers to these questions.

Because the interviews are just a gimmick, a lazy way for the filmmakers to have the characters communicate their thoughts and feelings.

The actors get off easy here. No heavy lifting required. They simply tell us what their characters think and feel.

Especially Sarah Jessica Parker's Kate Reddy, a smart woman who juggles her professional responsibilities at a Boston high-finance company with her responsibilities as a wife and mother of two.

When she has a conflict or something to say, the screen freezes to a still-frame, and Kate steps out to tell us directly about her situation.

Another lazy gimmick for sure, but a relative improvement over the nebulous interviews designed to spoon-feed us expository information.

(You could almost download the film's soundtrack on an MP-3 player and know exactly what's happening in this movie without actually watching it.)

Kate, a thin variation of Parker's "Sex and the City" persona of Carrie Bradshaw, works under a stern boss (Kelsey Grammer) and with an ambitious co-worker Chris Bunce ("SNL" regular Seth Meyers) who can't wait for the chance to take her down.

Kate's married to a great guy, an unemployed architect named Richard (Greg Kinnear, delivering the film's most realized, underplayed performance).

She has two children: a 2-year-old symbol of unconditional love, and an older daughter embittered over busy Mom's broken promises to spend more time with her.

Kate has an ultra-neat, organized corporate assistant named Momo (Olivia Munn) who can't fathom the thought of having babies, or anything else messy in life.

(This movie makes darn sure that Momo - and any other woman opting for a no-kids lifestyle - gets her priorities straightened out before the closing credits.)

Meanwhile, Kate has been given a plum assignment to work on a project with a New York power broker named Jack Abelhammer (erstwhile 007 Pierce Brosnan).

He's a widower. And he loves how Kate tries to balance her job with being a long-distance mom. Could he be falling in love with her?

"I Don't Know How She Does It" was adapted from Allison Pearson's 2002 novel by Aline Brosh McKenna, who did a smashing job adapting the screenplay for "The Devil Wears Prada."

But this domestic comedy has no devil. No big bad baddie to battle.

Abelhammer is a teddy bear in a pinstriped suit. Bunce is a dunce. The catty stay-at-home mothers (Kate calls them "momsters") are clawless kitties.

Kate has no worthy villains to engage, except her own demons of guilt as she spends more time away from Richard and the kids.

The target audience for this comedy is obviously working women with families - not male movie critics. To its credit, the movie effectively plays to its target demographic by pointing out the hackneyed double standards between men and women in the workplace.

As Allison reminds us, if a man shows his feminine side, he's hailed as a hero; if a women shows any emotions, she's branded as weak.

Yet, "I Don't Know How She Does It" suffers from its own brand of double standards.

Out-of-work Richard worries that they can't get by on one salary and works hard to get a job. Then, after he snares one, he drops guilt napalm all over Kate for moving up the ladder and presumably making a higher income. He wants her home like a mother should be.

Why doesn't the movie's mystery interviewer ask Richard why he can't stay home and give Mom the support he expected from her?

<b>“I Don't Know How She Does It”</b>

★ ½

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Christina Hendricks

Directed by: Douglas McGrath

Other: A Weinstein Company release. Rated PG-13 for language. 91 minutes