It's never a good sign when the supporting cast is the most interesting thing about your movie, but when your supporting cast is almost the entire cast of Bridesmaids (minus Melissa McCarthy), it's almost inevitable. When you factor in that the supporting characters are all more real and sympathetic than the two leads then it's a done deal.
Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) writes, directs and stars in this romantic comedy whose hook is two friends deciding to have a baby together without being romantically interested in each other.
Westfeldt plays Julie, a single woman whose biological clock is ticking loudly. Her best friend and neighbor is Jason (Adam Scott). When the two of them see their circle of friends having babies and how stressed their lives are because of them, they decide that the smart thing to do will be to have a baby together as friends, since they both want a child, but don't want to stress out a relationship with one. The way they see it, children kill romance, so their idea is that if they have a child with each other, while still dating other people, they can have it all. Did I mention this movie was a fantasy? I really don't feel I even have to mention the rest of the plot. If you've seen any romantic comedies before then you should already know exactly how the story goes from there. There isn't a surprise ending.
The biggest problem with this movie is that the two leads aren't particularly likable. Julie is practically a blank slate. We learn almost nothing about her except that she likes to play a game where she names two horrible things and you have to pick one. Would you rather die a slow, painful death or have to watch the love of your life die a slow painful death? Jason is even worse. He's a serial dater whose longest relationship is less than two months. He's short, arrogant and lacking in charm. Julie could do much better and Jason should be glad he can get anyone to date him, let alone want to replicate his genes.
One odd thing in the script is its use of profanity. Jason and Julie swear quite a bit, which seems not only out of character, but isn't as funny as perhaps Westfeldt thought it would be. I'm no prude when it comes to language and I fucking swear all the time, but hearing Julie say, "Fuck the shit out of me." at the end of a romantic moment doesn't fit the tone of the film.
In real life Westfeldt is in a long term relationship with John Hamm, who also appeared in Bridesmaids. I'm guessing he introduced her to the cast during filming. This movie began filming in 2010, before the Bridesmaids juggernaut was released in theaters and I wonder if they'd known how well it was going to do, if they still would have used the same cast? Certainly anyone expecting this movie to be similar to that one will be sorely disappointed, which might be why I've seen no marketing that emphasizes the connection.
In the film, Hamm is married to Kristen Wiig's character and their marriage is having difficulties. Wiig plays her small part almost completely serious and very well, demonstrating that she's not limited to comedy. Chris O'Dowd and Maya Rudolph are the most likable couple. They show far more charm than the two leads and I wanted to see more of them.
The most important thing in any romantic comedy, since the ending is inevitable, is that you have to want to see the couple overcome whatever artificial barriers the script throws in their way. In the case of Friends with Kids I really didn't care.
