‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ starring Elizabeth Banks, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Falcone
Though “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is a movie that is supposed to be based on the well-known pregnancy manual, the movie is no how-to good. In fact, the ensemble comedy mostly shows that it is impossible to know what to expect – for both mothers and fathers-to-be.
The movie follows several couples who are loosely connected to each other as they take the journey toward parenthood. Some of the couples have been actively trying to get pregnant while others end up in that state by accident. Still others have realized that the only hope of having a family is through adoption.
Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) is an expert on all things to do with pregnancy. She has written a children’s book that promotes breastfeeding and she owns a baby shop. But Wendy and her husband Cooper (Ben Falcone) have been trying for two years with no such luck. All Wendy’s knowledge is circumstantial until they stop trying and finally end up pregnant.
At the same time as Wendy finds out she is pregnant, Cooper’s father Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) and his much younger wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker) find out they are also expecting a baby. As their pregnancies progress, Wendy finds that she doesn’t feel as wonderful as she expected – she is tired all the time, her digestive system is amiss and she doesn’t have that glow she expected to have. But Skyler has none of the same symptoms as she makes her way through her pregnancy.
Jules (Cameron Diaz,) a TV fitness guru, is one of the people who ended up pregnant by accident. She started dating Evan (Matthew Morrison,) while they were partners on a TV dance competition that pokes fun at “Dancing with the Stars” when she got sick on air after her winning dance. Jules and Evan decide to stay together through the pregnancy, but the independent Jules is finding it hard to let someone in on making some of the decisions about the baby. She wants to know everything there is to know about pregnancy so she can stay in control, but she also refuses to slow down even though she is the oldest pregnant woman in the movie (over the dreaded age of 35 when doctors start dubbing pregnancies high risk.)
Holly (Jennifer Lopez) desperately want a baby, too, but she and her husband have been unable to conceive on their own. Holly is whole heartedly open to adoption while her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) remains ambivalent about the idea. A coworker of Holly’s suggests that she sends Alex to the “dudes’ group,” a group of men who hang out with their kids on Saturday mornings at the park. Alex is reluctant to go and even after he does go, the fathers do not reassure him that babies will enhance his life. One of the dads even says that parenthood is where “happiness goes to die.”
Vic (Chris Rock) seems to be the leader of the dads. He has a toddler who is constantly getting into scrapes but escaping serious injury and a daughter who spends most of her time in a baby bjorn. The dads share their horror stories each week and get away from their wives for the morning session. They can do things they want to when their wives aren’t around, like pronounce their children’s names American-style instead of with snooty French pronunciations – one of the babies is named Henry, pronounced like “Henri.”
Alex continues to struggle with coming to grips about buying a house and adopting a baby from Ethiopia, while the other parents deal with the struggles of pregnancy. The movie does mix in some bittersweet moments, such as another couple that ends up pregnant after a one-night stand. Overall the funniest moments are those between Wendy and Skyler, who are polar opposites when it comes to their pregnancies, and the fathers offering advice to Alex on what it’s like to be a good dad.
The movie is funny, but as with the book of the same name, it probably doesn’t really prepare anyone for what it’s like when the real thing happens.
