Jennifer Westfeldt and Adam Scott play best friends who both want kids but not all the crap that comes with marriage and decide to have a baby with no relationship strings attached. This movie belongs to the long tradition of films that feel like two or three seasons of a diverting sitcom compressed into a two-hour running time. So it's probably no spoiler to reveal that Westfeldt and Scott realize that they've been fooling themselves all along, are meant for each other, and decide to commit to each other and their baby.
The ending feels completely wrong and forced for many reasons, not the least of which is that Westfeldt and Scott have no chemistry together. I happen to really like Westfeldt, but I can completely see why her neurotic screen persona would drive other people crazy. This was the first thing of any consequence I'd ever seen Scott in, and there's something just flat out unlikable about him as an actor and his character that left a huge hurdle for me to get over. But beyond that, the movie isn't half bad, and it's refreshing for once to see a movie about relationships with children actually feature the children. Kids are in this movie all the time, and it's a far more realistic portrayal of what it's actually like to be a parent than the films in which kids are always off screen and completely silent.
The group of actors that play the main couple's friends includes the likes of Jon Hamm, Mya Rudolph, and most notably, Kristen Wiig, who is saddled with perhaps the most thankless role given to any actor in recent years, who has virtually nothing funny to do despite her tremendous gifts as a comedienne, and who yet managed to captivate me in every scene she appeared in. Could she have dramatic gifts as an actress that haven't yet been tapped?
Grade: B
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