Film Review: What To Expect When You're Expecting

About the film

What To Expect When You’re Expecting is a 2012 comedy film. It was released on 18th May and it is rated 12A due to language, crude and sexual content and thematic elements. This film has a run time of 110 minutes. This film is based on the book of the same name. 

Plot

Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy's husband, Gary, struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad, who's expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler. Photographer Holly is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex isn't so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by attending a "dudes" support group...

What To Expect When You’re Expecting follows the lives of a variety of people and couples as they embark on the adventure that is parenthood. Each person goes through different situations and experiences pregnancy in different ways. 

What I thought
Before I even begin this review I have to confess that I hate babies. That being said, I have no idea why I went to see this film nor why I actually picked to go and see it in the first place. I think I must have been having a slightly insane day when it happened.

The film starts off introducing each of the different couples that the film will be following. The main cast for What to expect… is pretty impressive. Many films that follow this format have been done before now but the problem that they seem to have is too many characters. However, although this film does have more main characters than normal, it isn’t too many. Unlike in other films, I never got bored of watching one character or wondered who the hell was who. The characters in this film are extremely easy to follow as most of them come in pairs.

Out of the main cast, Cameron Diaz was one of my favourites. Playing Jules, a fitness expert, the role is something quite different for Diaz. Although comedy is her genre, I don’t think that she has ever played a role like this before. She does a great job though and really puts her all into the character and the portrayal of a pregnant woman trying to keep up a job. Opposite Diaz is Matthew Morrison who is best known for being in Glee. Unfortunately, although he was good, he wasn’t fantastic. However, he was a calming counterpart on Diaz’s character but I was a little disappointed with his performance.

Most impressive performances for me go to Anna Kendrick who plays Rosie and Chace Crawford who plays Marco. These two are probably the lesser known of the cast with Kendrick having roles in The Twilight Saga and Crawford known for his role in Gossip Girl. I think that these two also had the most interesting and different storyline compared with others in the film. Both Kendrick and Crawford were able to show a range of emotions and overall came across as likeable. These are characters that many people will be able to relate to and I really wasn’t expecting either of them to be as good as they were.

My absolute favourite thing about this film though has to be the Dad group. Lead by Vic (Chris Rock), this group of Dads are hilarious. They don’t do things as they should do, probably don’t treat their kids in the right way and one of them even calls his son by a different name. Every single time this group was on screen, I couldn’t stop laughing. I knew from the trailer that I would like this though. Chris Rock is his hilarious self and is only made better by some great supporting cast.

Now we come to the plot. I know I may be a bit wrong in saying this but there were far too many pregnant stomachs for me. They really gross me out and I should have known I would feel this way before seeing the film. I have no idea why I would put myself through this kind of hell. However, there were enough funny parts to distract me at times which I was extremely thankful for. I did like the way in which different aspects of pregnancy are covered though and it shows that no one woman experiences the same things.

While I didn’t hate this film, it grossed me out a bit too much to love it. With the pregnant stomachs on show and the birthing scenes, it was just too much for me. Thank God for Chris Rock saving me!!