Knocked Up: A Review

Knocked Up is a difficult movie to review. In fact, I have found very few Christian critics that were willing to even offer one. That's too bad, because its $30 million opening weekend take suggests that a lot of people are seeing it. It strikes me as an excellent moment for Christians to offer their voice on that experience. Having said that, I don't know too many people that I would recommend it to, even though I thought the movie was exceptionally well done. Like Borat, the controversial "mockumentary" from last year, the movie offers an uncomfortable mix of poignant cultural observations, at times winsome and likable characters, and outrageously funny but extremely offensive comedy. While those first two features offers much for many people, I expect the brand of comedy that the movie offers severely limits its audience, particularly within conservative Christian circles.

Knocked Up stars Seth Rogan as the aptly-named Ben Stone, an aimless twenty-something who fills his days smoking pot and hanging out with his friends. Unemployed, he makes his way by stretching out the proceeds of a government settlement. The $14,000 payment has lasted him nine years and counting, so materialism isn't really his problem. He's not without his ambitions, though. He and his friends have been working on a website that will collect information about the nude scenes of famous actresses. So the productive side of his life is spent "gathering research" by watching movies that contain nudity and logging the information about each scene. An abundant life, indeed.

In contrast to Ben, we have Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl. Alison is a rising star on the E! Network. Having worked her way up as a production assistant, she finally gets her big break with an opportunity to appear on camera as an interviewer. Thrilled at the opportunity, she decides to go out and celebrate with her sister. At the bar, she meets Ben, who clumsily buys her a drink. With encouragement from his friends, and a little bit of "liquid courage" Ben approaches and talks with Alison. As the evening progresses, their relationship follows a familiar track, as the alcohol begins to takes over where wisdom belongs. It leads them to her place, and you could fill in the rest.

Then the morning comes. For Alison, the morning brings the awful awareness of what she has done. As she stares down at Ben in the bed, she has an understandable mix of regret and horror. For Ben, he doesn't remember much of anything, and for the next few hours they must get to know each other anew. Alison quickly realizes that she has not found "Mr. Right," and the oddness of their conversation ends with polite promises to talk again.

That talk probably never would have happened until a few months later, when Alison realizes that she is pregnant. In the days that follow, Alison walks a familiar track, as she has to grapple with the reality of the pregnancy, contact Ben and let him know, then try to make sense of what this means for her future. Ben is understandably overwhelmed by the experience, realizing very quickly that he has no idea what he is doing and that he is entirely unfit for parenthood.

While Alison begins the process of picking a doctor, trying to keep her job going without them knowing about the pregnancy, and preparing for motherhood, Ben and Alison decide to give a relationship a go. The film wisely takes its time trying to cultivate this unlikely relationship, working its way to convince us that a guy like Ben could actually have a relationship with a woman like Alison. This effort works because the filmmakers are patient enough to let their relationship move slowly and in fits and starts, as we see Ben try and fail to figure out how to grow up.

Like Director Judd Apatow's breakout hit The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up is a coming of age film for an overgrown adolescent male. In Virgin, it was Steve Carrell's shy comic book-loving bachelor trying to figure out relationships long past the point where he should have. Here, it is a loser learning about responsibilities like working and relationships in the context of unplanned fatherhood. In both cases, the movies succeed because of skilled writing and a great comedic beat and because of great casting choices, particularly in their choice of leads. Rogan's Ben is a loser, but a lovable loser, and while he is certainly unfit for a relationship and for fatherhood, his unfitness echoes the awkwardness that many of us feel when we reach these steps in life. These characters are likable because they are real, and as we laugh at them we are laughing at ourselves.

Also like Virgin, one of the things that intrigues me most about the film is the stark contrast between the comedic beat of the film and the underlying value system the movie seems to uphold. After all, in the real world, could this story ever be told? An up-and-coming career woman with no identifiable faith background has a mistaken one-night stand with a hopeless loser and winds up pregnant. With little prospects to get meaningful help through this process and with a career that would likely get derailed by having a child, how many in our culture would opt for, as Knocked Up describes it, that word that "rhymes with Shma-shmortion." Although the movie takes a moment to acknowledge her "choice" to keep the child, there is surprisingly little conflict over this. Instead, it seems from the beginning that there is instinct to keep the child, and to contend with the impacts that the child will have on her and their lives.

Alongside this choice is her immediate reaction to involve Ben in her life and her desire to cultivate a relationship, if only for the benefit of their child. Even Ben, hopeless loser that he is, feels a responsibility to act well on behalf of his child and to make things work as much as possible. He talks to his Dad, trying to seek advice about how to make things work. He stumbles on the way, but seems intent in his best moments at wanting to make things right for both Alison and his child. While I don’t want to give away the ending, I’m impressed with the way the character grew, and found myself rooting for him throughout his journey.

Although it was slow to develop, I wound up enjoying a subplot that focused on the relationship between Alison’s sister and her husband. Early in the film, the relationship seemed little more than a foil, a chance to glimpse the stereotypical negatives of marriage and commitment and offer Ben and Alison a chance to see what they needed to stay away from. As the film went on, we get to know the couple more, and especially get to enjoy the budding friendship between Ben and Pete.

As in Reign Over Me, another recent release I reviewed awhile back, the time between Ben and Pete, particularly in a quick road trip they take together late in the movie, provides opportunities for reflection on male friendship. While Ben has been spending his life around his buddies, Pete has become locked down in a marriage that leaves him little time for male companionship. In a clever parallel, as he seeks to sneak time to be with fellow “nerds” we see him acting like a man cheating on his family. As much as the movie offers reflections on family values, it is also offering some thoughts on male friendship that are worthwhile.

Knocked Up is a fascinating juxtaposition of conservative values and tasteless comedy. Its comedy serves as a language that allows the film to communicate to the college crowd and the young adult audience that should be its primarily field (keep the teens away, please). The values it communicates, though, are some that I think Christians of all ages should be largely echoing. The film’s instincts are that the unborn need protection and care, that two parents should be devoted to raising a child with love, that there is a need in our lives for real friendships, and that careers and other pressures in life are secondary next to the value of life itself. There’s more that we need to say, certainly, but what it is saying is significant, and worth celebrating.

Having just had my first child two weeks ago, the film’s birthing scenes, which included some of the most outrageous and most memorable comedy in the film, were extremely fresh for me. The freshness only enhanced that the film’s strength is in its ability to walk the same paths that we all walk in different ways, and to muse about the comedy we encounter along the way. The movie captures in part what I just experienced in whole: that birthing a child is at least one if not the most painful, most intense, and most emotional experiences a person can know in this life. But holding a newborn child in your arms, indeed, holding your newborn child in your arms, changes your perspective forever, and leaves no question in your mind that the experience was worthwhile. I even think my wife would agree with that.