May. 16, 2012 - Issue #865: Road Trips
What To Expect When You’re Expecting
Author Heidi Murkoff had a hand in the screenplay and although the book itself has no actual storyline, the team made up for it by creating multiple plot threads to cover the ups and downs of the road to childbirth.
The ensemble cast consists of Cameron Diaz as Jules Baxter, a fitness guru who gets knocked up by Evan (Glee's Matthew Morrison), her dance partner on a popular reality show; Jennifer Lopez as Holly, a professional photographer trying to adopt a child from Africa while dealing with her unnamed husband's (Rodrigo Santoro) hesitations about fatherhood; Dennis Quaid, a former race car driver whose young-enough-to-be-his-daughter wife Skylar (Brooklyn Decker) is breezing through a pregnancy with twins; Elizabeth Banks, a mommy-glow-obsessed baby-store owner combating the less-than-pleasant effects of pregnancy, and more. Basically, half the supporting cast of Bridesmaids Appears, along with some celebrity cameos, and it's a lot to take in.
The interconnection between the couples is weak, aside from Banks and Falcone versus Quaid and Decker. Banks is endearingly funny as she endures deadly gas spells, nausea and hemorrhoids, calling bullshit on the whole joy-of-pregnancy business while she watches her much younger mother-in-law embody the "glow" she thought pregnancy was all about.
Men in the audience can find solace from the mommy business in The Dudes, who tell it like it is and try their best to get their kids through it all in one piece, while they try to prep Holly's husband for the fact that there's no time to get ready, comparing having a child to jumping on a moving train and trying not to die.
What To Expect develops each couple's story line enough to avoid making any of them feel like filler. However, it would have been more interesting to throw in a couple who doesn't fit the conventional mould. Each faces their own challenges, but what about including a single mom, or even a homosexual couple to better reflect that today's expectant parents don't necessarily fit the heterosexual status quo.
Directed by Kirk Jones
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