First off you had Katherine Heigl and her Emmy drama, which as someone who was going to go into writing it was a bristlier.I had loved her character of Izzy on Grey's Anatomy but her off stage antics drove me to hate her.
Then you had Seth Rogan who I wasn't sure what I really thought of him. I had yet to see him in anything to that point. I later realized that he played a small role in the 40 year old virgin. Heigl had ended up over riding any interest in a new face.
But to the actual film.
Knocked up was a success in my eyes. It had laugh out load moments and it had tear jerking moments as well. It did well at telling the story given and didn't try to over complicated it.
The movie starts much in the way you would expect it. Two people who seem to have nothing in common are going about their daily lives. And oh what lives they have.
We see Ben (Rogen) living his life of watching movies to see when actresses get naked, smoking pot, playing around with games that must be from American Gladiator and living the life of many 23 year old men's dreams. I wish I could say more of his character in the beginning of the film but I kinda hated him in the beginning. He character was unlikable because he acted like a jerk, which seems to be a running trend in movies lately. Have the Jerk become a sweetheart. A man can be a sweetheart and still be cool without being a jerk.
We flip to Alison (Heigl) living the life of a responsible adult besides living with her sister and her brother in law. Her job at E! is an interesting choice for the character in the fact that is not even second fiddle, it seems to be last. The big thing that starts the whole chain of events, the characters meeting, oops baby, the fights, everything is started by her promotion. She is moved from what seems like Ryan Seacrest PA to an on camera reporter. This is a big deal, might actually seem like one if Heigl showed something besides boredom in her two scenes with Alan Tudyk and Kristen Wiig. She got a huge promotion and she seems almost as if it was no big deal, as if this wouldn't completely change her life forever. It is something that maybe passed by a lot of people but it drove me insane.
Alan Tudyk, a favorite of mine, was funny in the very supporting role. I always have viewed him as a "serious" comic actor. He does the comedies that are funny but insightful. His role as Wash in Firefly was beyond amazing and he could have completely stolen Death at a funeral if he had had just a few moments more of screen time. Then he throws "DodgeBall" at us and our brains turn to mush.
Heigl does a shockingly good job portraying a woman being swung around by her emotions. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones where she was emotional. The car scene might be one of the most honest things I have seen in a long time. You are yelling at the screen for Ben to watch him self. That he is going down a road he might not get back from. And yet you can understand where he is coming from. You can see every inch of not understanding flowing through his brain. It's an amazing fight scene.
Seth Rogen does an amazing job, portraying a man that in the beginning should not be a father into a man that your heart melts as you see him. He clearly shows a growth. My favorite scene is when Ben tells his father about the baby. The father is overjoyed, tells Ben that he was the best thing that ever happened to him and to look at this as a wonderful blessing, not a disaster. This out look on the situation is a complete reverse from Alison's mom, who tells her to "take care of it". The scenes back to back make you instantly fall in love with Ben's dad.
the two main supporting characters of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann)The story plays out exactly like you would expect. But in this case that is a good thing. They did all the cliche's but they did them right. Besides thinking that she might have to choose her career or her baby it was wonderfully played.
If I could sum up this movie it deals with two basic things.
The future and growing up.
Each of the main characters have plans, for their life, for themselves. They make plans and are crushed when they don't work out. The plans in their minds are set in stone, there is only one way to go and the fact that it doesn't make them grow up. It is the main point in the story. Alison and Ben's parents reactions show a lot about where Alison and Ben are coming from.
You may think, on first viewing, that Alison is as adult as you can be. That Ben is the child and needs to do all the growing up but I think it is the other way around. Alison expects life to be a certain way, needs it to be almost but Ben, Ben is happy with life as it is. He is content in the fact that life is going to be crazy and you might as well be crazy with it. That isn't to say that Ben does not need to grow up, he does, and nothing makes you grow up quite like having a child.
"Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it." - Helen Hayes
