Review of Obvious Child (2014) by V H — 11 Jul 2014

Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is a 28-year-old bookstore worker/comedian who shares a Brooklyn apartment with her best friend Nellie (Gaby Hoffmann) and Nellie's two large, caterpillar-like eyebrows. Donna's comedy act goes something like this: "I'm Jewish and I have a vagina and I love to fart!" This is, of course, hilarious since fart jokes are usually the purview of 12-year-old boys and isn't it just so zany and cutting-edge to hear scatological humor coming from someone other than an adolescent male. (No, Donna/Jenny, it is not.).

In short order, Donna's boyfriend dumps her and she loses her job. She responds by chugging wine from the bottle, performing onstage drunk, staking out her ex's apartment, and leaving increasingly desperate messages on his voice mail, a la 1996's "Swingers". Then she meets a sweet, dopey frat-boy-type, gets hammered with him (extended crazy dancing scenes! what fun!), sleeps with him, and ends up pregnant. So she schedules an abortion. On Valentine's Day.

Oh the irony!

(I realize that having an abortion on Valentine's Day isn't actually ironic. Nor is rain on your wedding day. Sorry Alanis.).

I found very little to like about "Obvious Child". I don't find Donna's brand of humor to be at all funny -- in fact the only joke I actually laughed at was delivered by her mother. Many of the scenes felt like I'd seen them countless times before (the crazy dancing scene, the drunken voice mail scene, the peeing on a stick and waiting for the results with your best friend scene, the post-breakup drinking montage). Making matters worse, the entire plot hinges on a ridiculously wild coincidence.

I suppose there's something to be said for a film being unabashedly pro-choice for a change, but as refreshing as it is to see this writer avoid the weaselly approach that's the norm when dealing with unplanned onscreen pregnancies, this "bravery" does nothing to make the rest of the movie any less trite, its main character any more likable, it's contrivances any more believable, or its jokes any funnier.

Though the idea of making a comedy about abortion is perhaps groundbreaking, the resultant movie is nothing more than your typical, run-of-the-mill, mediocre romcom.