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Film, TV and Streaming

Review: Obvious Child

When young comedienne Jenny Slate was added to the “Saturday Night Live” line-up five years ago, she very quickly gained notoriety by accidently exclaiming the “F” word during her first episode.

The moment would cost her – she only lasted only one season on the show – and she would not earn the same type of fame as Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig or Andy Samberg. But Slate would fortunately continue to land roles in other comedy shows on TV and not fade into obscurity. This year, she branched out into film as the lead in one of the most talked about indie comedies thus far: Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child.”

In just 24 short hours on a cold day in New York City, stand-up comedian Donna Stern (Slate) gets dumped by her boyfriend, loses her day job at a used-book store and drunkenly embarrasses herself. The downgrades in her life have caused her comedy to be too cynical and bitter.

She meets a new guy, Max (Jake Lacy), while clubbing, and is too hungover the next day to remember how their encounter concluded. A month later, she realizes what happened when she discovers she’s pregnant. She decides to get an abortion. But she soon realizes that it may not be so easy to pay for it as an unemployed single woman and doesn’t know if she should tell Max about her decision when she begins to grow fond of him.

Gaby Hoffmann continues her on-screen comeback as Donna’s roommate Nellie, Richard Kind and Polly Draper appear as Donna’s eccentric parents, and David Cross makes a cameo as one of Donna’s bosses.

Robespierre adapts “Obvious Child” from her own short film from five years ago with the same title, and succeeds as a debut filmmaker who manages to get movie fans to talk about her film throughout the festival circuit and now limited release.

Next to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Greenberg,” Robespierre’s movie is a new, rare picture that delves into the controversial topic as a non-negative solution to unplanned pregnancy.

Even in a day and age where the procedure is becoming more common among a lot of young women, movies like “Juno,” “Knocked Up” and “Blue Valentine” feature the female leads considering abortion as an end route but still choose to give birth. In the case of “Obvious Child,” it is original and memorable in that regard, though at points does tend to venture into “after school special” territory during some scenes and away from romantic comedy.

Where the film succeeds in uniqueness, it falls short in being fully entertaining. As a comedienne, Donna suffers the same fate of most fictitious comedians as not being as funny as a real comedian for whatever reason. In this regard, “Obvious Child” is more like a female version of “Funny People” and comes across more obnoxious than amusing.

Slate and Robespierre rely too much on bathroom humor for the comedy material, possibly as a way to draw in both men and women into the theaters. But ultimately, viewers might be more grossed out by Donna than enjoy her as a character. Robespierre has a good, impressive first cast and fresh ideas for her movie and future movies. Now she just needs to spend time character building. Rated R.



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