If you have been reading all of the reviews that I've been writing throughout the day then you're a stronger person than me but thankfully this is the last and ironically it is also the least. The big trend at the moment in romantic comedy films is to pack them as full as stars as is conceivably possible to make-up for the fact they are neither romantic nor comedic with prime offenders being New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. Adding to that list is What to Expect When You're Expecting whose title is based on the popular pregnancy guide and whose script looks to have been drawn on the back of a fag packet. The story focuses on five different couples, all of whom are somewhat interconnected, and who are all expecting babies in one way or another. First we meet Cameron Diaz as weight-loss guru Jules who appears on a Dancing with the Stars like show and starts a relationship with her professional Even played by Glee's Matthew Morrison with her hilariously discovering her pregnancy after throwing up in their winner's trophy. As their relationship is in its infancy they struggle to cope as they're both strong characters and a big argument ensues over whether or not they should circumcise their son which is an issue which soon goes global. One of Jules' former clients Gary is also expecting a baby with baby store owner Wendy, played by Elizabeth Banks, with the pair finally conceiving after trying for absolutely ages so when Gary's former racing driver dad played by the brilliant Dennis Quaid reveals that he and his trophy wife Skyler are having twins it comes as a blow to the couple. Skyler's cousin Rosie, played by Anna Kendrick, meanwhile has a one-night stand with a former high school acquaintance and food vendor rival Marco which obviously leads to her getting pregnant and the pair having to become a couple instantly. Finally Wendy's go to photographer Holly, played by J'Lo, is planning to adopt a baby from Africa along with her husband Alex who isn't as sure that he wants a child in the house so she sends him off to be with a group of fathers led by Chris Rock's incredibly vocal Vic. The basic message of Kirk Jones' film is that life's hard and sometime's we don't get everything we want but as long as we both have each other then life is good.
As there's five different stories here I thought there'd be different types of couples but two of our pairs are happily married while another have been dating for a while. While the situations involving Lopez and Kendrick are at least a bit different what with the adoption and the one-night stand I would've thought that a film set in 2012 would at least have some alternative views. For example What to Expect purports the myth that a parent needs a mother and a father but why couldn't there have been a single mother or at least a gay couple? I'm guessing the answer to this question is that this film wants to be as traditional as possible and despite the women in this film being presented as strong and independent there doesn't seem to be one character who thinks they'd be better off without a man with the case in point here being Rosie's story as instead of deciding that she wants to raise the child on her own she instantly gets the baby's father in so the pair can become a couple. As this was a comedy I was expecting some clever material but instead what I got was a long line of vomiting, urination, fat jokes and generally tired gags about what happens when you get pregnant. The funniest performers of the piece for me are Dennis Quaid as Gary's ultra-competitive father and Rebel Wilson as Wendy's shop assistant who has some brilliant asides while Chris Rock seems to be in a completely different film as he tries out some new stand-up material in his 'dad's group'. While I was watching I thought some of these individual stories would be good on their own especially Rosie and Marco's tale which I thought didn't have enough time dedicated to it despite the fact that Anna Kendrick is possibly the most talented of the five central actresses. I thought the script as well could've delved more into Holly's struggle with the adoption process but as it was she and Alex managed to get a baby fairly easily after just one home visit! The story that annoyed me the most was that of Jules and Evan which seemed to exist mainly to get a load of cameos in from Megan Mullaly, Whitney from The Hills and our own Cheryl Cole. Personally I would've expect more from Kirk Jones, who directed one of my favourite films in Waking Ned, but here it seems he's sold out directing 'comedy' sequences that I felt would be above him and overall there's not much praise I can lavish on the film other than to complement a couple of the performers.
Verdict: A horrible mess of a film with far too much going on and too many cast members doing it for the money while Kendrick, Quaid and Rebel Wilson did at least bring something to the picture I personally didn't find it funny or original enough to award it more than 3.5/10
