Any time a comedy boasts of over five A-list celebrities in a movie, it’s trouble. Even though they were box office successes, movies such as He’s Just Not That Into You, Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve are often met with bad reviews due to a poor script that relies more on the star power than on the story. What To Expect When You’re Expecting is guilty of the same idea.
Based on one of the best-selling books of all time by Heidi Murkoff, the script by Shauna Cross and Heather Hach fails at it’s title considerably by providing five different perspectives, so the audience is never given a chance to attach themselves to any of the characters. Rather than provide an interesting interweaving of the story, characters just occasionally walk by each other as scenes cross over. That’s not creative storytelling. I kept hoping for some sort of meaningful character development or true emotion, but unfortunately, most of the time the story was driven by reacting to situations rather than creating them.
There are lots of personalities that in small doses are tolerable, but each tended to become overacted as the movie progressed. Each are in different stages of their relationships and I found the couples to be too stereotypical while desperately trying to be different. Award for the most annoying go to Cameron Diaz and Matthew Morrison as the “Dancing with the Stars”-type couple. I never had a solid opinion of Ms Diaz one way or another, but her overacted performance combined with his took me over the edge. Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford are the young, carefree couple, but she’s too hung up on him being a playboy. Jennifer Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro are the alternative, less-than-rich couple in which he’s still not ready for fatherhood. Dennis Quaid and Brooklyn Decker are the old man/young girl couple. The only saving grace was the couple composed of Elizabeth Banks and Ben Falcone. Even though a lot of their story was outrageous, there were some truly touching moments that cannot be overlooked.
What people will be likely talking about most is The Dudes Group. Comprised of four fathers, these guys get together every Saturday and share stories without judgement. Although there were a lot of funny moments, most of the dialogue seemed forced. Their conversations have the illusion of sincerity, but really, they’re just for shock value. Thomas Lennon is way underutilized and misses the mark. Chris Rock attempts to save the idea as he sums up his experience, but it’s too late.
Flipping through the channels this evening, I came across a movie that I hadn’t seen in a while, that was really funny and had a good chunk of the story devoted to pregnancy and being a mom. That movie? Look Who’s Talking. Yep, Mollie (Kirstie Alley), a single woman, finds herself pregnant and suddenly has to figure it all out. Ok, so Bruce Willis provides the voiceover for the kid, Mikey, it’s quite silly and includes John Travolta as a taxi driver who falls in love with her, but it’s really funny. It shows the conception, the pregnancy (from inside the womb!) and even on to delivery and the first couple years. In fact, Amy Heckerling (Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously) wrote and directed Look Who’s Talking over (oh my) 20 years ago and it’s still hilarious.
Will you laugh? Probably, but it’s not going to be a laugh-out-loud riot, especially with the PG-13 rating. Going against Battleship (read my review here), Hollywood thinks they’ve got both sexes covered, but I’d take Battleship over this any day of the week.
Rating: So-so comedy with a predictable story – wait, five predictable stories (3/10)
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