WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING
US, 2011, 103 minutes, Colour.
Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Brooklyn Decker, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Chace Crawford, Ben Falcone, Matthew Morrison, Rebel Wilson.
Directed by Kirk Jones.
Some films need specialist backgrounds for review, some expertise in a particular area. For this one, out go all the men, except for those who need to have some empathy for their pregnant wives or partners, or to learn to be empathetic. Then out go the men who have had no first-hand experience with pregnant women. Then there are the rest. This review is coming from one of the rest. With as much empathy as possible.
As from the tone of the title, it is clear that this is a mixture of humour and self-help. It seems very frothy at times, even flippant. But, anyone in need of serious advice would not be asking it of this film. It would be a false expectation. They would be seeking out experts and reading serious material. So, this light touch film is a chance for women who have experienced or are experiencing pregnancy to respond emotionally to the on-screen stories, compare their own pregnancies and have a laugh or a weep.
Actually, it is some of the more ‘weeping’ sequences that stay in the mind, especially a miscarriage, the grief of the mother, her attitude towards the father of the baby (they are not married) and the behaviour of the father.
There is also an adoption story, featuring Jennifer Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro, the question of eagerness and readiness, tensions, the interviews by the agency and, in this case, couples going to Ethiopia under the auspices of the agency to participate in a religious ritual with national and cultural overtones, to receive their babies.
There is comedy with Elizabeth Banks as a breast-feeding expert with a business who collapses in mid-address to a conference, throwing all her sweetness and light sentiments out the window, and beyond. There is comedy with Cameron Diaz as a fitness expert with her own TV show and audiences following her pregnancy.
There is also the story of an older man with a trophy wife, Denis Quaid and Brooklyn Decker. She is pregnant with twins, keeps fit, is more common-sensed than we might have thought and comes through the pregnancy with calm and delight.
There is also an assortment of fathers, especially a group who walk their babies in prams in the park.
At times, it seems like comedy soufflé, all colourful, smart rom-com dialogue, almost cliché situations. But, thinking about it afterwards, there seems to have been more than met the eye.
1. The film based on a guide for pregnant women. And some documentary touches? Situations turned into entertaining short stories? Adapting the book for fiction? And comic touches, serious issues, the range of characters? The American middle-class focus?
2. Issues of marriage, commitment, trying to conceive a child, pregnancy, adoption, abortion, miscarriage? The focus on advice to pregnant women, theory and reality? The different perspectives? Audiences identifying with the characters?
3. Women in the audience, their own experiences, identifying with the situations and characters? Men and their experience of marriage, pregnancy, birth? Bringing up children?
4. The extensive cast, well-known names, the more immediate communicating the characters and stories through them?
5. The stories intercut, friends, family, relationships? The role of the media, television shows?
6. Jules, her partner, their performance, competitions? The fall? Jules pregnant, wanting to conceal it? Magazines, television programs and gossip? Her television show and the focus on fact people and dieting? And the months of her pregnancy, her experience, keeping it quiet? The response of her partner, at home, the birth?
7. Wendy, something of a guru about pregnancy, especially breast-feeding her books and talks, her shop? Her assistant, wisecracks, the jokes about her size? Reliable in the shop, good advice? Gary, her love for her husband? The visits to his father, the rivalry between father and son? Her lectures, the reality of pregnancy, her pain, her reactions, her outburst during the presentation? The irony of this? being credible to women and their rushing back to see her and consult her? The having a caesarean section of the birth?
8. Holly and Alex, Holly and her photography, her way with families, her friend the boss, her being fired? Alex and his joining the walking group?
9. Ramsey and Skyler? Wealthy, Ramsey and his young trophy wife, his attitude towards Gary, mocking him, their clashes, issues of golf, diet? The irony of Gary and his being on Jules’ show? The slapstick, the golf cart, the drive and the crash? A further bonding between father and son?
10. Skyler, statuesque blonde, pleasant, loving Ramsey, pregnant with twins, very strong, pain-free pregnancy, more than coping?
11. The walking group of men, the range, the personalities, the talk, their problems, Chris Rock and his wisecracks? The children, relationship with wives? The envy of the athlete? And his coming down to earth with the group?
12. Jules going to see Gary, the show, the food, his failures and successes?
13. Jules, Skyler and Wendy going to the hospital? The births?
14. Holly and Alex, going to Africa, the adoption, the range of couples, the village and the ceremony, the bonding with the child, the bonding with the home
culture? Religious ritual?
15. Marco and Rosie, friends, the past, dating, rivalries with their food trolleys, dating, her pregnancy, his macho attitudes, the pathos of her miscarriage, the break between the two?
16. Market, the accident, his being at the hospital, Rosie visiting her cousin, skylark, the couple meeting, dating again?
17. Joys and pains of pregnancy, of giving birth, of adoption, the response of mothers, fathers? New beginnings?
