This review was written for Screenage Wasteland!
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Samuel and Rebecca have been together for five years. As far as Samuel is concerned, their relationship is pretty perfect. Lately, however, Rebecca has been wanting more. When she becomes pregnant, she’s nervous but ecstatic. The news turns Samuel into a basket case, and he begins to question whether or not he even wants to be a father. It strains their relationship, especially when it becomes clear that Samuel’s lifestyle has to change.
My husband told me he used to love Nine Months, but I had never seen it before watching it for the blog. I read that Hugh Grant, who plays Samuel, was appalled by his performance in the movie. He felt as though he overacted, pulling a lot of strange faces, etc. I suppose I can see that in some scenes, but for the most part, he just came across as bumbling Hugh Grant to me, the same performance we see in many of his other romantic comedies.
At the same time, I felt like maybe he was a little miscast. I’m not sure what it was, but when I watched it, he seemed out of sync with the rest of the performances. It didn’t help that I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between Grant and Julianne Moore (Rebecca) either.
The majority of Nine Months focuses on Samuel and his trepidation of fatherhood. He’s a child psychologist who sees firsthand how much children can despise their parents. However, the movie sometimes goes above and beyond to paint Samuel’s fears as reasonable. One minute, Rebecca tells Samuel that nothing has to change… and the next, she’s telling him they have to sell his new convertible and get rid of his 16-year-old (!) cat. I understand needing a bigger and more dependable car, but I can’t imagine telling my significant other to get rid of their very old pet.
Another issue I had with Nine Months was that Rebecca seemed pretty intelligent. She’s the one who informs Samuel that she’s read about how cats can harm babies, and compared to Samuel, she’s the rational one. So I was a bit annoyed when she suddenly pulled back from getting intimate with Samuel, afraid that sex would hurt the baby. The baby “might see” Samuel’s penis.
Honestly, the scene played like a ridiculous Yahoo Answer question you might see online. Its sole purpose was to fuel Samuel’s trepidation and frustration over the pregnancy, creating sympathy for him while having Rebecca come across as a moron. See, no wonder Samuel isn’t on board with this pregnancy; Rebecca won’t have sex with him! Ugh.
Jeff Goldblum and Robin Williams have minor supporting roles in the film, and they’re both hilarious with what little screen time they have. Goldblum plays Samuel’s friend, Sean, whose longtime girlfriend recently dumped him because he didn’t want kids. Williams is Rebecca’s Russian OBGYN, providing most of the quirky physical humor. This role would have been incredibly obnoxious had it been any other actor, but Robin Williams was a true legend, able to make just about anything hilarious.
Rounding out the rest of the cast are Tom Arnold and Joan Cusack as Marty and Gail, a married couple with three daughters and a fourth on the way. They’re the complete opposite of Sean, who is also Gail’s brother. They love marriage and parenthood and help Samuel and Rebecca along on their journey. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I adore Joan Cusack. I am immediately happy anytime she pops up in a movie I am watching, including this one.
Nine Months has many funny moments, though they generally come from the supporting cast. And even if I felt like Hugh Grant was miscast, he’s still Hugh Grant, so there’s some of his trademark charm to enjoy. Overall, I found the movie to be okay—a cookie-cutter rom-com—but I doubt it’s one that I’ll end up watching again.
Watched: 09/24/2021
Notable Song: 19th Nervous Breakdown by The Rolling Stones
After being let go from her job, executive producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) finds herself in New York, producing a failing morning news show called Daybreak. It’s a challenge from the beginning, with a crowded office falling apart and low morale among staff. The co-hosts of the show are no treat either. Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) is a diva, and Paul McVee (Ty Burrell) is an arrogant jerk with a foot fetish.
Realizing she needs to make her mark on the staff from the get-go or risk losing any chance of earning their respect, Becky immediately takes charge of the newsroom and fires Paul. This leaves a vacancy in the co-host position, and Becky realizes the network has an award-winning veteran news anchor, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), still on contract.
Pomeroy is not interested in morning news fluff and finds it beneath him as a hard-hitting journalist. Still, Becky finds a clause in his contract that if the network officially offers him a job, he has to take it or lose out on his lucrative paycheck.
Pomeroy doesn’t want to miss out on the money, so he agrees to the co-host position. From here, Becky faces several obstacles as Mike is unwilling to make her job easy. He and Colleen do not get along; he’s grouchy and refuses to do any segment that he doesn’t consider actual news.
Becky struggles to keep the show afloat while also balancing a new relationship with Adam (Patrick Wilson), another producer in the building who once had to work with Mike and calls him the “third most horrible person in the world” behind Kim Jong-il and Angela Lansbury.
The romantic aspect of Morning Glory takes a backseat to Becky’s relationship with her job and her complicated relationship with Mike. I didn’t find this to be a problem as Mike and Becky’s relationship was far more interesting than Becky’s relationship with Adam, who, while quite hunky, was bland and underdeveloped. His role felt like filler, as if someone as cute and perky as Becky needed to have a love interest.
But it was Becky’s job as executive producer of Daybreak that felt like her significant other. I realize there’s a stigma that workaholics are unlucky in love and lonely, but it didn’t feel that way with Becky. She genuinely loves her job, and I don’t think anyone could fault her for putting in the necessary time to turn the show around for all involved. If her potential boyfriend has an issue with that, he’s not worth the time, in my opinion.
Ford is delightfully grumpy as Mike Pomeroy, and his scenes with Keaton as they hilariously insult one another are some of the movie’s best moments. Sadly, I felt like Keaton, as was Jeff Goldblum, who played Rachel’s boss, Jerry, was underused in the role. With a cast of this caliber, I wanted to see more from them. McAdams gives a strong performance as Becky. She has some great comedic timing and holds her own against the rest of the legendary cast, notably Ford. Whereas Mike and Colleen provide most of the humor, Mike and Becky’s blossoming respect and friendship are the backbone and heart of Morning Glory.
Morning Glory is a cozy, fluffy comedy that ambles along with enough humor and heart to make it worth a watch.
Watched: 07/25/2019
Notable Song: Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield
Wally (Jason Bateman) is a man who is clearly in love with his best friend, Kassie (Jennifer Aniston), though he doesn’t seem to realize it. Wally is awkward, mopey, and pessimistic in a way that makes you understand why he’s still single (beyond pining for Kassie, of course). Kassie is a woman who’s ready to be a mother and decides to get inseminated with donor sperm. The decision causes friction between the two friends, likely because Kassie is ready to have a family of her own, and Wally is afraid of Kassie moving on into adulthood without him.
He’s not exactly supportive of her decision, which prompts Kassie to tell Wally that they ‘need a break’ from one another. He next hears from her through an invitation to her ‘I’m Getting Pregnant!’ party. While there, Wally meets Roland (a hunky but otherwise blah Patrick Wilson), the donor, and proceeds to get drunk enough that he accidentally dumps Roland’s “donation” down the sink. In an effort to cover his tracks, he replaces the sample with one of his own… but, of course, he is too drunk to remember any of this.
After Kassie reveals she’s pregnant, she also reveals she’s moving away from New York to raise her baby in the suburbs. She and Wally do their best to keep in touch, but years pass, and they eventually grow apart. Several years later, Kassie calls and informs Wally that she and Sebastian (an adorably melancholy Thomas Robinson) are moving back to the city. She and Wally reconnect, and Wally must adjust not only to having Kassie back in his life but also to having Sebastian.
It’s here that the film really becomes more about Wally and Sebastian bonding as Wally begins to notice more similarities between them, not only in appearance but also in personality. Sebastian is convinced he suffers from a multitude of medical problems, and when Wally concedes he suffers from hypochondria, Sebastian is convinced he has the same thing.
Sebastian is a quirky kid who collects picture frames and seems to find the downside to everything in life. It would have been easy for Sebastian to come across as bratty or obnoxious, but Robinson’s baby face and downtrodden delivery are far too entertaining. The scenes between Bateman and Robinson are, in my opinion, the best part of the movie. We see Wally grow with every interaction with Sebastian, and he slowly comes into his own as a father (before actually realizing he is the father, thanks to a little help from his boss, played by the always fantastic Jeff Goldblum).
Of course, the conflict here is that Wally has yet to tell Kassie he ‘switched’ the samples at her pregnancy party, and in the meantime, Kassie has begun a relationship with Roland, who has recently divorced. Honestly, I don’t feel as though Aniston’s part was big enough in this movie to really comment on. She’s okay as Kassie, and she and Bateman have some decent chemistry, but The Switch really belongs to Wally and Sebastian, and you want to see their relationship blossom much more than Wally and Kassie’s because, let’s face it, we all know how this movie is going to end.
There are some icky factors at play here. ‘Hijacking’ someone’s pregnancy (at a pregnancy party, of all places… do these exist??) by switching sperm samples is pretty repulsive and creepy. Yes, Wally was drunk, which attempts to make it excusable, but a quick montage at the end of Kassie going through the motions of finally forgiving Wally is a bit weak, and I would have liked to see a better resolution to that particular betrayal.
Watched: 01/09/2019
Notable Song: I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz