What to Expect When You're Expecting

Review by Anthony Morris

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