The folks out at Warner Brothers sent out a copy of Life As We Know It for me to review for you–doubly so since it hits video stores this Tuesday–and as such I worked my magic and got you a fresh review. And while it’s a romantic comedy, fellas out there, you needn’t worry, as this one’s really not half bad.

Holly’s a hard-charging Type A type of gal who’s never found the right man, and Messer–or more often Mess–is the type for whom most every gal he meets is the right type. Their best friends, meanwhile, are a young family just getting started…until a sudden accident leaves them dead, and custody of their new baby falls to, surprise surprise, Holly and Messer. And when the rest of the family systematically disqualifies themselves in a hilarious montage in which the baby very nearly–though accidentally–kills an elderly man, Holly and Messer realize that they really are the best choice to raise the baby. If, for no other reason, than by default.

Watching two people who mostly hate each other suddenly become forced to live together to raise a baby is a strange, strange experience. And frankly, if you’ve got anyone in your family who’s considering having a baby, they really should see this first. This is, nuts and bolts, a full-on look at what that first year of a baby is like–at least, as far as I can tell from comparing notes against other people with babies. Frankly, no lifestyle looks all that great here–singledom is shown as fraught with perils, while marriage with babies is shown as eminently dissatisfying. Life as we know it, no matter how we know it, pretty much, well, sucks.

But what’s interesting is that, at least for Holly and Messer (who are actively seeing other people for most of the first half of the movie), life becomes steadily better over the course of the movie. Once they get used to the whole thing, it actually becomes better with the two of them together.

Sure, it’s a bit on the predictable side, but as romantic comedies go, this one will have actual laughs involved with it, and that puts it a peg up from other romantic comedies. It’s even got some unexpected parts to it, which is actually another point in its favor.

I normally find romantic comedy distasteful, but Life As We Know It actually didn’t turn out half bad. The Screenhead Ten Scale throws in its notch of grudging respect and hands over a seven out of ten to a romantic comedy that has lots of romance, and plenty of comedy, making it a great example of its kind.