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We all have opinions about what happens to our friends, family members or just people and relationships in general when kids enter the picture. But writer/director/star of the new comedy 'Friends With Kids', Jennifer Westfeldt really has an opinion about it - and it's not pretty.
Set around a group of friends who one by one start jumping on the baby-train, BFFs Jules and Jason are horrified by the people their friends have become since becoming parents and decide to have a baby together, therefore skipping the damage a child causes to a marriage because... they’re not married. Genius, right? Free to date whomever they want, we watch as Jules and Jason navigate split-down-the-middle co-parenting, new relationships and the effect their “arrangement” has on their friendship.
While the film does offer up a cold, hard dose of reality with plenty of laughs thrown in, it still lends itself to certain Hollywood clichés. Trying desperately to put her own raw you-were-thinking-it-I’m-just-saying-it spin on this often taboo topic, ‘Friends With Kids’ still manages to fall within the well-worn romantic comedy mould.
Westfeldt has plucked the majority of the ‘Bridesmaids’ cast for her directorial debut, including real-life partner Jon Hamm. With all that supreme comedy talent, there are not nearly as many laughs as there should be, and some jokes seem forced and play as though they were worked to the bone by their highly skilled performers. However, Westfeldt does possess sharp dialogue writing skills, particularly in group scenes where natural witty banter and multiple conversations are the name of the game.
Westfeldt charmed audiences in 2001 with her first script ‘Kissing Jessica Stein’, and ‘Friends With Kids’ will surely do the same again - but the next time around she’s going to have to bump it up a notch to stop fans from drifting away.
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