Based on the best-selling British novel by Allison Pearson, the film I Don’t Know How She Does It is set in Boston and stars Sarah Jessica Parker as Kate Reddy, an overwhelmed wife and mother of two struggling to preserve both her job (as a finance exec) and her marriage (to an architect, played by Greg Kinnear). “Life sometimes makes things hard in a funny way,” says director Douglas McGrath (Emma). “But other times, it’s not so funny.”
In the film, which also stars Kelsey Grammer and Christina Hendricks, Kate’s already strained marriage is brought to the breaking point by the arrival of a dashing new boss from New York (Pierce Brosnan). “He’s always perfectly turned out,” says McGrath, explaining the appeal of a bachelor’s seemingly immaculate existence to a woman with a household constantly in chaos. “Kate never sees the other side of him, the unshaven side—and he never has to see the side of her without makeup. I can see how that could be tempting.”
