REVIEW — “Obvious Child”

Obvious Child, directed by Gillian Robespierre, is about Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) a cute yet peculiar female comedian in her late 20’s struggling to figure out her life. Things take a turn for the worse when her longtime boyfriend insensitively dumps her for another woman. What a jerk! And if that wasn’t enough, her rebound encounter leads to an unplanned pregnancy. Faced with life changing decisions around every corner, Donna “womans-up” and tackles these challenges, sometimes head on and sometimes from inside a cardboard box.

Obvious Child is perfectly sweet, hilarious and heartbreaking. Sometimes it’s all three emotions at once! Jenny Slate is wonderfully quirky and has amazing comedic timing. The dialogue is smart and witty and I often laughed so hard that could hardly pull myself together.

I was impressed at how the film handled the subject matter of abortion. It’s a controversial topic with a lot of strong opinions on either side and everywhere in between. Obvious child does an excellent job at telling a story that is very relatable both those who have and haven’t gone through something similar. Many other critics have described it as “Juno but about abortion” and I believe that is an accurate statement.

What I loved most is the very realistic representation of how I think most people handle really difficult times in their life. After the shock and anger subsides, I think most of us maintain our sanity by finding ways to point and laugh at the incredibly awful things that happen to us. The humor in Obvious Child is not only smart, but layered with personality and bravery.

I absolutely adored Obvious Child. It’s definitely an emotional ride but it is exceptionally charming, funny and heartwarming throughout. Despite abortion being the hot button issue that it is, I think that a wide variety of people with thoroughly enjoy this movie.

5/5 Stars