Obvious Child

Dir: Gillian Robespierre

2014

***

In 2009 Gillian Robespierre made a short film called Obvious Child. It was somewhat of a stand against what she perceived as misrepresentation of unplanned pregnancy and abortion in mainstream cinema. Robespierre stated at the time that she felt "disenchanted with the representation of young women's experience with becoming pregnant". She's got a good point and many agreed so she decided to write and shoot a feature length version. Jenny Slate reprises her role from the short film and, as much as I didn't always like her character, she does a fantastic job of it. It's a tough subject, especially within the realms of comedy because whether you agree with abortion or not, it's just not a very nice subject. However, it is a very normal thing, a way of life and it has been for many hundreds of years, Robespierre and Slate really are telling it how it is. Never is the subject treated without respect though, the characters acknowledge and are clearly effected by the situation. There are times where Slate's character is beyond annoying and it is very easy to dislike her and her behaviour but this also highlights the fact that she isn't ready for motherhood, it wouldn't be fair on either her or her child. The message here is two mistakes don't make a right and at the end of the day, it's no one's decision but that of the woman in that situation. There really isn't a bad guy in this scenario, just a very ordinary and unfortunate situation that hundreds of thousands of people find themselves in at one point or another. It's not great but it happens, the idea that woman use abortion as a form of contraceptive is of course ridiculous, unwanted pregnancy comes from a mistake both a woman and man make at the same time and it is wrong that it is always the woman who is victimized. Obvious Child doesn't lay blame with anyone as such, it points out a mistake, that is all. How the main characters deal with it is rather wonderful, it may seem like it's in the worst possibly taste but this is quite a sweet love story. Rites of passage comes in all shapes and sizes, not only is this an intelligent alternative to the usual mainstream nonsense but it's also a really good exploration of change and maturity. It's a gusty film with big cojones and I applaud it for what it stands for and what I believe it has achieved. However, I just didn't like the humour or Jenny Slate's character. I didn't like the fact she was a stand-up comedian, I hated the scenes where she spat out her humourless routine to a room full of coffee drinking cardboard cut-outs and the fact she had no money but still afforded to live in an expensive area of Brooklyn. The strength of the film is in its realism, this realism is almost shattered by all the unrealistic and synthetic looking ideas. Maybe it had to be somewhat abrasive to give the film the impact it required, and I love what they've done, I just hated the details, which I think were important and sadly overlooked.