She's Having a Baby
I’ve long known this as one of my Dad’s favorite <PERSON> movies. Must’ve been something about seeing it in theaters at the time that hit differently than streaming it on PlutoTV with 13 ad breaks in 2023, which was one of my more fascinating and frustrating viewing experiences of the year.
<PERSON> excels at pairing young people convincingly in love at each other so it was jarring to meet a couple (<PERSON> and <PERSON>) who don’t even really seem to like each other. Their marriage seems like one of convenience rather than of conviction, settling for each other because what else do you do? Naturally, as a 27-year-old with an eye towards that next phase of life, there are few things more terrifying. It felt like an inverse of <PERSON>'s Le Bonheur; instead of a happy marriage sabotaged by a philandering husband's boredom, She's Having A Baby feels like a miserable marriage fumbling towards a cure with a 9 month waiting period.
At its core, it’s a film that’s the opposite of everything he made his name on, trading teen thrills for adult trenches. There’s more fighting than Frenching. It’s a bold move to so baldly confront often-disappointing grownup life after shaping the American perception of adolescence in his own image. And if his goal is to show how much it sucks, he succeeded! From a career that doesn’t go how our ~hero~ initially plans to a marriage that seems bereft of any spark before leaving the altar (that kiss was a doozy), <PERSON> is off on an adventure that’s anything but a day off in your best friend’s dad’s cherry red Ferrari. But just like <PERSON>, he can’t wind back the miles. All he can do it focus on the road ahead.
For years, my dad advised me to hold off on viewing The Graduate until I’d finished college and found a job I like. He was right—I’m glad to have found work in something other than plastics before indulging in a tad of schadenfreude at <PERSON> expense. 378
In some ways, I wish he’d given the same advice in waiting to watch this until happily married. In other ways, I’m glad he didn’t. While The Graduate spins its wheels in admittedly hysterical navel-gazing, She’s Having A Baby serves up a hefty dose of cautionary pie. In the face of temptation to settle for less, I know I’ll always have <PERSON> desperate face in the back of my mind beating a tattoo: don’t.
That’s not to say it’s not satisfying when he and his bride succeed in building the marital bliss that everyone hopes for when stepping up to the altar. Plenty of couples take time to find their way. I just aim to start higher. The needle drops here are some of <PERSON>’ best—and that’s saying something. I fully wept when “Apron Strings” by Everything But The Girl started playing during the pregnancy montage and “This Woman’s Work” hit similarly hard towards the end (pretty sure that’s the first <PERSON> song I remember loving).
All in all, it’s a bit of a mess and often a slog, rarely aspirational and often cautionary. Not the sort of movie you really want to watch at this phase of life, but absolutely one you benefit from. Guess that’s why you’re supposed to eat your vegetables 378