While the film is touted as the next big thing or, more precisely, "The funniest film of its kind since Bridesmaids" (as says the poster), the film itself is more of an affectionate look at friends falling in love after having a child together... Rather than a belly-laugh comedy that the poster would suggest.
The film opens with two best friends, Jason (Adam Scott) and Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt), talking on the phone at 4am after last nights conquests lie next to them in their beds. Straight away, we realise that they are long standing buddies without any funny business going on between them (despite everyone around them wanting there to be something.) There is also Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O'Dowd), the couple who get pregnant first out of all their friends and after having their children, they like to argue... a lot. But, they still love each other, despite their flaws. And finally, there is Missy (Kristen Wiig) and Ben (Jon Hamm), the newly wed couple, who like to sleep with each other a lot and also end up getting pregnant before, well, falling out again.
It's all very set-up and from the moment the film starts, it's all kind of obvious how the film is going to go. While this isn't a completely bad thing, it does mean that you have to invest time for your audience to completely care about these characters. The audience knows who is going to get their heart broken and who is going to want a divorce, but the journey that they take to that moment is where you want to completely pull on your audience's heart strings and put them through the emotional wringer. Unfortunately, Friends With Kids fails to do this.
One of my biggest problems was, why was it Julie that had to have unrequited love for Jason? Why couldn't the film have switched it around and have the man be the one pining for the woman who doesn't love him back? I'm not a feminist, but I think it would have been different and more emotional to have it that way, rather than have the stereotypical helpless, emotional female character. Also, what happened to Kristen Wiig in this film?! She was reduced to looking pissed off in the corner of every scene. She hardly had any input or any reasoning as to why she was so annoyed with her husband. Sure, he was a bit of an idiot and didn't help her with their child, but he didn't seem to do much more to warrant such hatred from her.
Also, the film didn't really get it's casting right. Julie (Westfeldt) seemed a bit weak to be a main protagonist. If she is going to get her heartbroken, we want to see her change from being helpless to being a strong, independent woman (I heard you, Destiny's Child!) However, she just remains helpless throughout.
Are we supposed to buy it that Jason (West) is a womanising lothario, who can date and bed different women like Mary Jane (Megan Fox) with ease every single week? Sure, films are meant to represent a fantasy, as such, and what man wouldn't want to bed a different Megan Fox each week? But Adam West just didn't really seem to fulfil his role very well.
However, while the film isn't laugh-out-loud funny like The Hangover or Bridesmaids (like the poster suggests it is), the film is a sweet look at how friends can sometimes fall in love. Some might say it's a bit of a predictable and sickly finish to the film, but I think that it filled it's role as romantic mush very well.
So, if you like your films light on the drama but a bit heavier on the "feel-good factor", then Friends With Kids is definitely something to give a go. However, it doesn't have an emotional punch to it to make it exactly memorable.
** / *****
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