I have mixed feelings on the film- it's both honest and unrealistic. I feel it tackles an important reality, and Jenny Slate's character is refreshingly honest, but I felt some of the romantic interactions were unrealistic.
I liked that it tackled the reality of unwanted pregnancy, which is that many women have early-term abortions. As I am a 28-year-old woman, I found Donna honest and pretty relatable. The humor was crude for the most part, but I laughed out loud at several points. The chemistry wasn't dynamite, but Jenny Slate and Jake Lacy were funny and endearing together.
On the other hand, while the film tackles a very real subject, I thought the interactions between Donna and Max see-sawed between totally relatable and really unrealistic. I didn't like how the film glosses over all the actual communication that would have to occur between a couple like Max and Donna. It just didn't seem real to me.
Jake Lacy is adorable, but I also didn't feel he met the script's requirement that he convince us why this straight-laced MBA guy was so head-over-heels with the crude jokester Donna.
Some reviewers seemed to have missed this, but the film is pro-choice (obviously). The film's heroine has zero doubt that abortion is what she wants. The film does not even mention the other options by name; there is zero discussion about them. So, this is a partisan film. (Which is not necessarily bad- but I think we should recognize it for what it is.)
Also, the title makes little sense to me. Is the Donna the "Obvious Child" because she's honest? Is her decision obvious?
I liked that it tackled the reality of unwanted pregnancy, which is that many women have early-term abortions. As I am a 28-year-old woman, I found Donna honest and pretty relatable. The humor was crude for the most part, but I laughed out loud at several points. The chemistry wasn't dynamite, but Jenny Slate and Jake Lacy were funny and endearing together.
On the other hand, while the film tackles a very real subject, I thought the interactions between Donna and Max see-sawed between totally relatable and really unrealistic. I didn't like how the film glosses over all the actual communication that would have to occur between a couple like Max and Donna. It just didn't seem real to me.
Jake Lacy is adorable, but I also didn't feel he met the script's requirement that he convince us why this straight-laced MBA guy was so head-over-heels with the crude jokester Donna.
Some reviewers seemed to have missed this, but the film is pro-choice (obviously). The film's heroine has zero doubt that abortion is what she wants. The film does not even mention the other options by name; there is zero discussion about them. So, this is a partisan film. (Which is not necessarily bad- but I think we should recognize it for what it is.)
Also, the title makes little sense to me. Is the Donna the "Obvious Child" because she's honest? Is her decision obvious?