Sarah Jessica Parker plays the character of Kate Reddy. Kate is a business executive with a demanding professional career working for an investment banking firm. Her job demands that she be able to frequently go on business trips, many times at the spur of the moment. She does her best to balance this out with the pressures of raising a family at the same time. Her husband Richard Reddy (played by Greg Kinnear) is supportive of her efforts but also struggling to get his small business of an architectural design firm on a solid financial footing. They have a nanny that helps them, but even so the rigors of the family life and the professional career demands are almost overwhelming.
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Kate is a master at balancing all the things that must be dealt with simultaneously, so much so that her husband calls her the juggler. She is able to keep it together, even finding time to fake making a home-made pie late at night by distressing a pie bought from the deli so that she can deliver the baked goods the next morning for the bake sale in support of her daughter's kindergarten and stand her ground with the judgmental women who are the mother's of the other children. Those women do not have a professional career and are simply rich spoiled home-makers but they judge her nevertheless.
Kate is able to keep it all together until the head office in New York notices a report she prepared about a proposal for a new retirement fund. A big shot in the New York office named Jack Abelhammer (played by Pierce Brosnan) invites her to New York to present her ideas about a new fund. It is hilarious how goofy she acts because she has been infected by lice that came home from school on her children, but it is charming how smart she is as well. She gets the job to make the new fund which takes her away from her family. Because they have to work together so closely, Jack starts to have feelings for her.
Best part of story, including ending:
She succeeds in her efforts to make a big success in her career, but also at a critical juncture she decides her family is more important. We are very happy to see she finds a way to balance both.
Best scene in story:
The scene when she is infected with lice while at a business meeting is hilarious. She tries to keep it together but the itching is out of control.
Opinion about the main character:
Kate makes the correct choice in the end. She maintains her integrity, she chooses love of her family over her career and because she makes such a strong choice she is able to balance all of it and succeed in all facets of her life.
