Friends with Kids Review

You would think Friends with Kids would fall in line behind pretty much every romantic comedy that's been made over the past couple of years. For the most part, it does, but that's not to say without trying to at least do something a little different with it's story, but it doesn't quite have enough effect to really make it stand out as much as it could.

The movie basically has conflicting viewpoints on the whole concept of modern-day relationships. On one hand, it has the idea that marriage and parenting can ruin a person's life. But on the other, it says that it can save someone's life; give them new meaning so to speak. It gives pretty compelling arguments for both sides, but never really decides which one it wants us to think is best, and I kind of see that as a cop out. If you're going to do a movie about new 21st century relationships, then own up to which one you think is the best for the time we're in now. Don't worry about happy endings or making your characters get exactly what they want. Give us the grit of relationships nowadays. True, there is one couple that embodies the issues with parenting, but their end seems so arbitrary that it doesn't really add much to the movie's ideas about relationships to begin with.

It seems really odd to compare Friends with Kids with Bridesmaids, but I couldn't help it. Four of the main actors are back (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, John Hamm, and Chris O'Dowd), and it's almost like seeing these same characters after the events of Bridesmaids.  A lot of the dialogue is really funny and whimsical, but I sometimes had a difficult time believing everyone would really talk like this. It's kind of similar to my problem with Juno: no 16 year old is that witty.

The most ironic thing about the movie, though? Megan Fox, who has a small role, is actually pretty good. Not like, oh wow look at Megan Fox, her body is distracting me from how terrible she's acting right now, but more like huh, she's actually holding her own in these scenes. Granted, her toughest dramatic competition is John Hamm, and her character is just pretty much a bridge across a huge metaphorical gap, but nevertheless it was a nice surprise.

However, the movie really disappointed me with its ending. The final scene really tries hard to tell us that these characters actually did grow and learn something from this experience, but then it ultimately twists its words around and were left thinking maybe that's not the case, and before we even know, the movies over. It leaves a bad taste. It'd be like drinking Kosta Browne at a party for hours, and then suddenly you're forced to drink a Bud Light. Not the best combo.

In all honesty though, the movie is pretty funny. The characters are for the most part pretty likable, which helps us root for them, even though they all have huge flaws and none of them know squat about raising a kid, and sometimes the movie kind of glorifies this idea. Plus, we know the road the movie is heading down almost from the moment it begins, but these characters make us not concerned with that.

B