Summary: Sarah Jessica Parker plays “Kate Reddy,” a bundle of nervous energy who is burning her candle at both ends and threatening to flame out.
At home, Kate has a husband and two kids plus a nanny, a mother-in-law, and a row of empty little bags she must fill with birthday goodies. It’s a mostly female world dense with tons of sticky-looking stuff of every conceivable shape, size and texture.
At work, Kate has a prestigious new client and a hyper-critical assistant, plus a boss, a rival, and a stream of text messages all marked “urgent.” It’s a mostly male world of rooms with highly-polished surfaces and edges that meet on the perpendicular.
In the end, Kate learns nothing’s perfect, her husband learns that checking something off a list can feel really good, and her boss learns the value “Work/Life Balance.” Bottom line: We’re all in this together!
Click HERE for my full review on WomenArts.
And here are some snippets from my chat with screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (who also wrote the screenplay for The Devil Wears Prada):
Aline: Women are so tough on themselves. Women hold themselves to a very high standard, wanting things to be perfect, and letting go of “perfect” so that you are in the realm of good enough.
For me the signature line is when “Kate” (Sarah Jessica Parker) says, “It’s still going to be a mess,” and her husband “Richard” (Greg Kinnear) says, “It’s going to be our mess.”
As my husband says: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Jan: That’s exactly what my husband keeps telling me! “Jan, don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good!”
Aline: Yes!
Photo Credits: © Craig Blankenhorn/The Weinstein Company
