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What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Teresa Talerico

In this fast-paced romantic comedy, multitasking single mom and architect Melanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) meets journalist Jack (George Clooney), who is taking care of daughter Maggie for a week while his former wife honeymoons with her new spouse. The two immediately clash when they find themselves towing their children around Manhattan after they miss a class field trip, because Melanie is a bit of a control freak while Jack charms his way through life. As they careen through the day as an unexpected team, the feelings between Melanie and Jack begin to thaw, and they reevaluate their opinions of each other (and themselves). Will the gun-shy survivors of divorce take a chance on love? Their kids seem to know the answer from the start.

Is It Any Good?

3

Sometimes the parents' constant bickering threatens to bring the movie down, but the kids save these scenes from descending into nastiness with their cute antics. And when the adults' identical-looking cell phones accidentally get switched, this makes for an enjoyable running gag.

Melanie and Jack gamely try to balance their workdays with parenting, a tactic that yields both disastrous results and touching moments. A final romantic sequence feels a bit too long and slow compared with the rest of the movie's quick-moving plot, but overall it's entertaining.

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