Films about working mothers: Beware what you believe

As a working mother, I would much rather be represented by Julianna Margulies than Sarah Jessica Parker, any day of the week. Margulies plays the character of Alicia Florrick on CBS’s “The Good Wife.” Sarah Jessica Parker is currently starring as an overworked mom in the recently released movie, “I Don’t Know How She Does It.”

It’s amazing to me that the movie even got made. I assume it was meant to pay tribute to the commonly known phenomenom of super moms: women who juggle kids, home, career and husband, with reasonable aplomb. But in “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” she isn’t really pulling it off.

Parker, who as a fashion icon and lead actress in “Sex and The City” is most famous for her ability to spend vast amounts of money on shoes with vertiginous heels — heels that no working mother could last 30 minutes in — in this role still manages the heels, but can’t find a hairbrush.

Ms. Florrick, on the other hand, always beautifully coiffed, not only juggles a career as an intelligent lawyer and mother of the requisite two kids, but her husband is a lout and not currently in residence as he’s spending time in government subsidized housing, i.e., prison.

Parker’s character has a handsome and adoring husband, who can’t do enough for her. She also has a full-time nanny. Florrick gets by with a meddling mother-in-law.

Though I don’t know any working moms who get unraveled by the peer pressure of a bake sale or freaked out by the childhood ritual of head lice, as Parker’s character does, the movie is reasonably realistic. Perhaps that’s its problem. Realistic but trivial. Well, except for the scene in which she sprints many, many city blocks in those aforementioned heels because she can’t find a cab. Fantastical or heroic — I’m not sure.

If the movie had been made using the women I know as inspiration, the handsome husband might still have been attractive but he also might have been an-out-of-work alcoholic who still couldn’t pick up the kids after school; or the meddling mother-in-law would also have cancer and be living in the guest room; or simply too many kids, too little help, not enough money.

TV dramas and movies are generally for our entertainment. The best have enough reality in them for the audience to relate, but the characters get to say and do things we hope we would do given the same chance. Like Alicia Florrick.

 “The Good Wife” started as a ripped-from-the-headlines drama: the wronged political wife with pearls standing by her man as he makes a very public confession. Saida Spitzer being the most recent real-life inspiration (the creators of the show have recognized her as the primary role model), which includes Hillary Clinton and many before her. Very quickly the show left that archetype behind.

Alicia Florrick sells the suburban home, rents an apartment in the city and goes back to work. Now we’re talking. Here is a working mother who everyone can look at and say “I Don’t Know How She Does It.” Juggling job and home — check. Juggling two kids, one of whom at any given time is feeling petulant and resentful — check. Judgmental in-law — check. Distrustful colleagues — check.

But wait; this woman is smart. And she’s not whiny. Though few women would blame her if she wanted to have a pity party. By the end of season one, her husband can get out on parole if he has a place to live, that is, if she’ll take him back. Which she does, but not into her bed. He’s relegated to the guest room. Then he decides that he wants to get back into politics. Of course, his only hope of winning is if his steadfast wife is by his side.

This is where I really embrace Alicia Florrick as a role model; she’s willing to go along with him, but she has some conditions of her own. She’s a complex character who has weathered enough storms to have an investment in the outcome. She’s not going to give up her job. She won’t hit the campaign trail, and she’s not even sure she’ll stand by him if he wins. In the months she’s been fending for herself she’s redefined who she is, and you know what? She knows how she does it.

Tara Kelly, copy editor at The Lakeville Journal, is an avid follower of social trends. She may be reached by email at tarak@lakevillejournal.com.