By now we all know that when Hollywood decides to
make a film out of a self-help book, what they really want to do is
make a Love, Actually
style film full of various intertwined short stories that may or may
not have something to do with what the self-help book was originally
about.
Which poses the question : why bother with the
self-help book at all?
Why call your film What to Expect When You’re
Expecting when you could presumably just call it
"Pregnancy Frenzy" and save yourself the licensing fees?
The book has no characters, and pregnancy isn’t
exactly a topic unknown outside of the book’s pages, after all. But as
with almost everything to do with movies today, it boils down to
marketing : the book was a bit hit so people have heard of it, and
hopefully having heard of the book might lure people in to see the
film.
Which, if nothing else, is about pregnancy and
having a child in all its many forms : Jules (Cameron Diaz) is a
reality fitness instructor shacked up with her dance partner – she gets
pregnant but isn’t sure they're in the right place
relationship-wise.
Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) runs a maternity store
(with Rebel Wilson as
her Rebel Wilson-esque shop assistant), which you'd think would prepare
her for pregnancy but, uh, no.
Especially as her husband’s
father (Dennis Quaid) has just got his half-his-age wife (Brooklyn
Decker) pregnant. Marco (Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl, who’s
actually good here) and Rosie (Anna Kendrick) have duelling snack
wagons, and when they hook up for a one night stand the resulting
pregnancy pushes them together a lot harder than they can
handle.
And
while Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) and Holly (Jennifer Lopez) are jumping
through various hoops in their attempt to adopt, Alex is sent off to
improve his attitude by hanging around a bunch of new fathers led by
Vic (Chris Rock).
As usually, none of these stories are all that
exciting to follow (and it’s a pretty safe bet you can guess how it’s
all going to end), but taken together the bland tapestry that results
at least manages to avoid hailing pregnancy as some kind of natural
miracle.
The occasional moments of blunt reality –
pregnancy is
tough and painful, not everyone feels the desire for a child as
strongly – aren’t exactly earth-shattering, but in this kind of
feel-good film jokes about kids eating cigarettes are funnier than you
might have expected.
3 out
of 5
What To Expect When You're Expecting Australian release: 31st May,
2012 Official
Site:What To Expect When You're Expecting Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn
Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock,
Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone and Joe Manganiello Director: Kirk Jones
