A high-stress job, a husband, and two young children are lot for one woman to have on her plate.  Somehow, Kate Reddy (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) manages to make it work.

The movie “I Dont Know How She Does It,” released September 16, 2011, is about the struggles mothers face in the workplace: sacrificing work for their kids, while simultaneously trying to shake the “working mom” stereotype of performing poorly at work because they spend too much time at home.

Parker portrays Kate Reddy, a type-A mom working at a financial management firm in Boston.  Even though she isn’t home often, she tries to give her kids the best life possible and makes many sacrifices for them.

However, Kate doesn’t quite seem to understand that parenting is being there for your kids and nurturing them, not being distant and having a nanny take care of them almost all of the time.

The film is supplemented with slightly cheesy, infrequent one-sided chats about Kate by her friends, and times where the audience gets a peek into Kate’s mind.

The movie is not only about balancing work and family, but also about how women are compared to men in the workplace.  Kate is constantly being compared to her coworker, Chris Bunce (played by Saturday Night Live actor Seth Meyers).  It doesn’t help that Bunce is constantly undermining Kate by making sarcastic remarks about the amount of time she spends with her family.

Meyers embodies the typical competitve co-worker: he appears perfect and polite towards his boss, but everyone else can taste his excessive sarcasm.  Kate acts like she’s not letting him get to her, but Parker’s performance lets the audience know that all the comments wear her down.

The film is slightly unrealistic. Some of the characters seem a little too kind and forgiving to Kate, and sometimes her problems work out a little too nicely.

Produced by the Weinstein Company, the film addresses the subject of many people’s lives: raising children while having a full-time job.  It ultimately shows that being at work to often can hurt your children and that family should be the most important in anyone’s life.  In the end, Kate embraces her role as mother, and says “trying to be a man is a waste of a woman.”

“I Don’t Know How She Does It” is a rather predictable but cute and inspiring movie about the struggles of working mothers, and reiterates that family is the most rewarding aspect of life.