Movie Review: What to Expect When Expecting

Tuesday night, for the first time in about oh, 2 years and 9 months, I went out for a girls night! It was SO exhilarating to be out of the house without my children or Hubs! Not much happened, BK and a movie, but still!

I first heart about the "What To Expect... "  movie coming out when they signed all of the contracts for the stars. Once I heard it was going to be an ensemble a la Valentine's Day/New Years Eve, I was a bit more excited to see these stars in roles that weren't your average Rom Com fare. I researched it a little bit and saw that it was going to follow individual stories of all of these characters going through different challenges as becoming parents, which sounded interesting though sort of far from the book's original intentions.

For the record, I did read two books out of the What To Expect series from cover to cover, both the "When You're Expecting" and "The First Year". Although my copy of "When You're Expecting" was significantly outdated, it still proved helpful in following the weeks/months progression throughout my first pregnancy. I did find it to be lacking in a few places and had a lot of "OMG this could happen to my baby?!" scenarios that new mothers probably shouldn't know about unless required.

My second pregnancy I was so busy with Cash and work that I barely knew how many weeks I was.


So how was the movie compared to the book? Well.. considering it was pretty much NOTHING like the book, it was great!

The movie's cast is a vast range of hilarious and super mega stars (not mutually exclusive) as well as loveable indie/comedy stars that I guess would fall into the "up and coming" range.

Jennifer Lopez (I refuse to call her "JLo") plays a photographer married to one of the hottest guys on the planet (Rodrigo Santoro,) and after a few bouts of IVF and being unable to concieve, they she decides to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. 

Cameron Diaz is a celebrity fitness guru (a la Jillian Michaels) who is competing on a dancing-with-the-stars type program and falls into bed (and maybe love?) with her dance partner. (So much like reality, yes?!) And whoops, they're knocked up. Her partner, played by Matthew Morrison from Glee (Oh, Mr.Schu <3) and her can't agree on practically anything in regards to raising their yet to be born child. 

Elizabeth Banks is the "perfect mom" type, just without the baby (yet) and while her and her dentist husband  have been TTC (trying to conceive, for all of you Torontonians out there!) she already has the "MomPreneur" thing down pat with a Pro-Breastfeeding store and Book. Once she becomes pregnant she basically has the worst possibly pregnancy ever short of Preeclampsia and nothing is going as she expected it would when she would be expecting. (Ha see what I did there?) 

This of course, is totally opposed to the pregnancy the radiant young Brooklyn Decker's character is experiencing. She is married to a Nascar Legend, played by Dennis Quaid, and although she's younger than her Step son, who is expecting with Elizabeth Banks' character (Ben Falcone, from... stuff...), they happen to be expecting at the same time. Preggers with Twins, towering around impossibly skinny and perfect with no pregnancy symptoms to be found, she'd be the likely antagonist in the movie if she wasn't so damned adorable! Curse you, Australian accent! (I think her accent in the movie is supposed to be Southern, but what she lacks in acting ability she makes up for in HOLYSHITSHEISSOFREAKINGHOTITSNOTFAIR!)

And no joke, I don't want to ruin it for you but the bitch sneezes her babies out! Like, literally "oh... hold on I need to sneeze... ACHOO!" "And here's your baby!" ... I literally was like "OH fuck OFF!" 

Additionally we see the loveable and up-and-coming Anna Kendrick playing a 20-something who has an... encounter... with the too-pretty-for-a-man-to-be Chase Crawford and has a "16 24 and Pregnant" moment. I remember it all too well... sigh. Their flirtiness gets sort of awkward but in the end their story is sweet if not sort of sad. 

Some of the most loveable characters in the movie are basically extended Cameo's, played by Chris Rock, who is the "head dad" in a Dude's Group that meets every Saturday for "Dad Time" with their kids as they stroll around a park with strollers and snuggly's and diaper bags astrewn preaching words of wisdom to adoptive-dad-to-be Rodrigo Santoro and stopping for a glimpse of what'd be like on the other side while they chat with the impossibly ripped Joe Manganiello (True Blood anyone?). 

The film has some Bridesmaids-esque funny moments without being completely raunchy, and I think anyone who is a parent can identify with at least one of the characters if not several. 

Personally, I was the Brooklyn Decker type. *snort*

Here's the trailer: 

I give it three foot rubs out of five!