“Life as We Know It” is a comedy/drama that explores the possibility of what it feels like to wake up one day and find that “life as we know it is never the same,” as tagged in the trailer. The movie follows a classic romantic TV drama plot, except it is a bit more unexpected, more dramatic and more grown-up. But while the movie gets a round of applause for its sweetness and its seemingly awesome suspense in the title, it simply falls flat on viewers’ expectation of a solid, funny, romantic drama.

The movie starts with an awkward first date that kills whatever love seed is planted between the two main characters Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl from “Grey’s Anatomy” fame) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel, mid-“Transformers” run). But life never happens the way you want it to, and of course, this time life does its trick as well, bringing the two rivals back together by throwing at them a life-size baby. And this is where all the fun starts.

The baby’s arrival is explained in true Hollywood fashion. Holly’s best friend and Eric’s best friend are married, so at every get-together and every party, the pair engages in countless sarcastic fights. Soon, their best friends have a daughter, Sophie. Both Holly and Eric rejoice in this little precious thing, but not for long. A car accident makes Sophie an orphan, and compounding Holly and Eric’s grief is the news that they both are the newly appointed guardians for little Sophie. Dumbfounded, Holly and Eric now have to work hard to raise Sophie and to figure out their personal lives.

The movie has all its elements right: the hilarious adventure with changing baby diapers, the frustrating but not heart-wrenching misconceptions and the sad but not tear-teasing pursuit to the airport. The adorable baby Sophie easily brings about happiness to create the necessary light-hearted atmosphere. In addition to that, the snippets of big and small fights between the “single status” couple are fun to watch.

However, maybe the touch of classic is too heavy or the landed-with-a-baby idea is just not new enough. The movie is cute, but not enough to send people flying back to watch it a second time like the movie “Knight and Day” does. The commonplace humor of dealing with babies manages to induce some giggles but never whole-hearted laughs; the classic love plot succeeds in producing a love drama but largely fails to grab the audience’s emotions.

The whole movie lacks the cohesiveness that builds a memorable love story. Maybe it’s the way the movie is portrayed; maybe it’s the plot itself. The love is just not deep and attractive enough to etch itself into your memory instead of straying into oblivion when the movie is over.

So, in a word, no serious action, no love at first sight, but more ups and downs of raising a baby, more balancing work life with a baby and more “life as we know it.” It would be most suitable for dating couples and a senior audience, since it is warm, mostly gentle and glowing with love