What to Expect When You’re Expecting (9/11/2012)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic elements and language.

Starring Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Jennifer Lopez, Brooklyn Decker, Dennis Quaid, Joe Manganiello and Chris Rock

Directed by Kirk Jones (Everybody’s Fine and Nanny McPhee)

This one was way too raunchy for us.

Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules and dance show star Evan find that their high-octane celebrity lives don’t stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. 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, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is. And rival food truck chefs Rosie and Marco’s surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?

Since 1984, millions of expecting moms have read the bestselling series of “What To Expect” books by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazell, which continue to guide pregnant and new moms though pregnancy and early childhood development. One thing the books leave out is how to deliver a funny, heartwarming movie about pregnancy from a pregnancy advice book.

And so, Kirk Jones tries to deliver a star-packed romantic comedy, instead we get a lame script, multiple storylines, way too many sex jokes, and parent-to-be clichés.

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks make up the central cast of women whose story lines cover humor and heartbreak and everything in between. When things get too heavy, the movie goes to the antics of the dads led by comedian Chris Rock. The “dudes group” basically walks around a city park and fires off comments about female anatomy, mini-vans, the time one of them picked up the wrong baby from daycare, and other fatherhood “pitfalls” that feel like they should be followed by another cliché…the rim shot.

Some expecting mothers may like it – my expecting wife was ready for the exit long before the credits rolled…I say “Skip It.”

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
There is plenty of “implied sex” and even more comments about sex throughout the movie.

There is at least one F-word and 15 other mild obscenities.

CONVERSATION STARTER

1. More than once in the movie, we hear the soon-to-be mothers describe the life growing inside them as “miraculous.” What do you think of that statement?


2. Read Psalm 139:1-18

   O Lord, you have examined my heart
   and know everything about me.
   You know when I sit down or stand up.
   You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
   You see me when I travel
   and when I rest at home.
   You know everything I do.
   You know what I am going to say
   even before I say it, Lord.
   You go before me and follow me.
   You place your hand of blessing on my head.
   Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too great for me to understand!

   I can never escape from your Spirit!
   I can never get away from your presence!
   If I go up to heaven, you are there;
   if I go down to the grave, you are there.
   If I ride the wings of the morning,
   if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
   even there your hand will guide me,
   and your strength will support me.
   I could ask the darkness to hide me
   and the light around me to become night—
   but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
   To you the night shines as bright as day.
   Darkness and light are the same to you.

   You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
   and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
   Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
   Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
   You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
   as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
   You saw me before I was born.
   Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
   Every moment was laid out
   before a single day had passed.

   How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
   They cannot be numbered!
   I can’t even count them;
   they outnumber the grains of sand!
   And when I wake up,
   you are still with me!

3. Do you believe you ARE a miracle?


4. Do you know anyone who would really be encouraged by this passage? Who is it?


5. Will you commit to share this passage with them this week?