UNPREGNANT
US, 2020, 103 minutes, Colour.
Hayley Lu Richardson, Barbie Ferreira, Giancarlo Esposito, Alex MacNicoll, Breckin Meyer.
Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg.
The title, Unpregnant, raises a question mark. How can anyone be unpregnant? The answer is, of course, by abortion.
This film, based on a novel by Jenni Hendricks and Ted Kaplan who collaborated with the director and other writers for the screenplay, focuses on a 17-year-old girl in Missouri, at school, with a boyfriend, thinking they are using condom protection, but testing herself in the school toilet, finds that she is pregnant – and the test dropped on the floor and picked up by her friends who speculate on who did the test, targeting an unsympathetic girl in the class.
Veronica (Hayley Lu Richardson) meets with the boyfriend who unexpectedly proposes to her. She walks out, researches abortion laws in Missouri, finds that abortion to under 17s without the consent of their parents is available in New Mexico.
She persuades the unsympathetic girl, Bailey (Barbie Ferreira) with whom she had been friends in the past but have since clashed, to drive her to Albuquerque. Much of the action of the film shows their adventures, ups and downs in their travels, at stockcar racing, stranded when it is revealed that Bailey has taken her mother’s car without permission, wondering the desert, trying to catch a train, searching for bus stations, Veronica trying to sell her ring at a pawn shop, picked up by a kindly couple who turn out to be anti-abortion extremists, encountering an eccentric loner who drives them in his limousine, a detour for Bailey to meet her most unsympathetic father.
Response to this story and the issue of abortion, especially for teenage girls, will depend on the audiences’ ethical response to abortion. Clearly, the film is in favour of the abortion – but also adds something of a postscript, Veronica returning home to her mother, feeling very bad in herself, her mother declaring her love for her but stating that this was not the choice that she herself would have made.
- Title? Pregnancy? Abortion?
- A film about abortion within current United States legislation, abortion for those under 18, requirements for parental consent? Different states?
- Attitudes towards pregnancy? Sexual encounters? Condoms and protection? Morning after pills? Abortion as an immediate solution? The response of the pregnant girl, her friends? Of the boyfriend responsible? The final words of Veronica’s mother, loving her daughter, but not approving the choice?
- Veronica’s story, in the toilet, the pregnancy test, flying out the door, the girls picking it up, speculation, targeting Bailey? Veronica and her friends, the in-group, the chatter, phone calls, texting? The attitude towards Bailey, past friendship, clashes, ousting her?
- Kevin, responsible, going out with Veronica, the ring and the proposal? His attitude, 17-year-old, promises, immature? Her taking the ring? Kevin and his tracking her, the encounters on the way, the rejection, at the pawn shop and his declaration, his coming to the abortion clinic, his argument, the touch of petulance while wanting to support her, leaving?
- Bailey, family, her mother, her father walking out (and her contriving to meet him, his not welcoming his daughter, his story about his life, sending her away, her reaction? And Veronica standing up for Bailey and physically attacking him?)
- Veronica, the research, phone calls, legislation in Missouri, in New Mexico? Her planning the trip, meticulous with the timetable, finances? Her list? Her appeal to Bailey to go, Bailey in the past experience, reluctance? Taking her mother’s car?
- Various adventures during the trip? At the diner, the police, the revelation that Bailey had taken her mother’s car? The stockcar racing and the boys, walking along the road? The couple picking them up, the house, anti-abortion, the girls taking the car, crashing it over the cliff, escaping? Trying to catch the train but unable? Trying to get to bus stations? The visit to the pawn shop, the woman with the rifle, Kevin turning up? Veronica able to sell the ring?
- The closed house, Bob opening up, his eccentric attitudes, taking on the girls, the money, his limousine, driving, the car breaking down? The two girls enjoying the trip, then clashing, truths told, Bailey leaving, going to see her father? Veronica tracking her down and defending her?
- Resuming with Bob, at the clinic, the sympathetic Nervous, going through the procedure for the abortion, anaesthetic, sleeping, the surgery? Visualising this?
- The aftermath, Veronica and her carefree attitude, yet self-conscious, with Bailey, phoning their parents, the plane trip home, the taxi?
- Veronica and the talk with her mother, love, not agreeing with her choice?
- The next day, school, Veronica leaving her girlfriends, sitting with Bailey?
- The theme of Bailey’s sexuality, gay, out, at the speed car race, the driver, the attraction? The discussions about the issues with Veronica?
