I thoroughly enjoyed this movie! Even though the ending was predictable – there were many before it with the same result -, "Expecting" was thoroughly enjoyable! There were many ups and downs and the actors thoroughly portrayed their characters.
Lizzie and Peter are trying to have a baby through IVF, to no avail, and her friend Andy instantaneously winds up pregnant after a one-night stand. After deciding not to abort the baby, and knowing that her friends have been desperately trying to conceive, she makes the offer of a lifetime – for Lizzie and Peter to adopt her baby. Much to Peter's dismay, Lizzie accepts Andy's "unconventional" offer and insists that her best friend stay with them at their house.
It is revealed that Lizzie and Peter see Dr. Grayson (Mimi Kennedy), a psychotherapist, due to Lizzie's desperateness to have a child and their fruitless attempts at conceiving through the IVF treatment.
Casey, Peter's brother, who's recovering from drugs, comes out of rehab and Peter instantly takes him under his wing, insisting that Casey move in with them so he can keep an eye on his brother, and make sure that Casey stays on the straight and narrow.
Hilarity and mayhem then ensue and secrets are revealed.
I love Joyce, the dog, whom tries to escape whenever the gate's left open, and Dr. Grayson, who tries to get Lizzie and Peter to open up about their lives and feelings. I must say, I love Mimi Kennedy anyway, who's a fabulous actress!
I've really never heard of any of these actors, let alone seen anything that they're in, but their portrayal of these characters was superb – I, personally, believed that they could be these characters! That's just me, though.
Jessie McCormack did a brilliant job in writing and directing this film and showing the audience what it's like to go through such an experience. I do wish, though, that he'd chosen not to mute out some of the dialogue of particular scenes and replace them with music – it was a real bummer and would've added more to the drama, and made the characters that more real.
Of course, some people may say that not only would it be a tad boring, but you don't need constant dialogue to fully understand the essence and emotion of the scene, and at times it's best left unsaid, but rather seen, which is true. It just irked me a bit. Saying this, though, there are scenes that did quite well with the music replacing the dialogue, but there were some scenes that were better off with more dialogue than music – it felt a bit out of place. He just needed to find the right balance between music and dialogue in some scenes. The other scenes, though, were perfect!
All in all, Jessie and the actors were superb in this film, including Joyce, and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to watch a good film unfold, especially one that's not your typical ridiculously high budget, Hollywood blockbuster. I find those a bit cold and out of touch with reality, but this one really hit the nail on the head – it had just the right amount of heart and realism.
