Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is a stand-up comedian, who finds herself suddenly dumped by her boyfriend, who admitted to cheating on her. As a rebound to the break-up, Donna has a one night stand with Max (Jake Lacy) and finds herself pregnant as a result. Donna decides to have an abortion, which happens to be scheduled for Valentine’s Day, and she struggles to find a way to tell this news to Max, who turns out to be an incredibly nice guy. I am not a guy who typically goes out of his way to see romantic comedies and I decided to go and see Obvious Child based on incredibly positive word of mouth. I probably best know star Jenny Slate from her very brief period on Saturday Night Live, where she accidentally dropped the f-bomb on her very first episode, as well as her current recurring role on Parks and Recreation. I believe Obvious Child is Slate’s first starring role in a film and it’s an expansion of the 2009 short of the same name. Based on the heightened expectations I had about the film, I was a bit disappointed that Obvious Child wasn’t more than it turned out to be. I can probably say that I thought that the film was OK enough, however I just don’t really understand what’s making people love Obvious Child so much. I admit to not really laughing too much at the comedy in the film and I admit that I dug the film more during the dramatic moments. Jenny Slate is a pretty likeable lead character and her budding relationship with Max is probably one of the more realistic courtships seen on screen. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Gaby Hoffmann as Donna’s best friend Nellie, Richard Kind as Donna’s father Jacob, Polly Draper as Donna’s mom Nancy and David Cross makes an appearance as somewhat creepy fellow comedian Sam. In some ways, Obvious Child can be seen as a pro-abortion movie, even though it doesn’t really beat this fact over the head. Much of the film is about Donna learning to cope with the situation she is in and stop worrying about what other people think of her. Probably a key scene in the film has Donna having a bonding moment with her mother over her problem (her father on the other hand, seems to disappear halfway though the film). I can confidently say that Obvious Child is one of the better romantic comedies out there, but it’s not really much more than that.7 | FAIR
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