"Life Happens" is a tedious, unfunny comedy film about a young woman who has been stuck with motherhood because she loses an argument for the last condom in the box. Foolishly, she has sex anyway, leaving her with an adorable little tot, and leaving us stuck with her.
She meets a dreamy hunk and lies about being childless. She has a falling out with her best friend over the latter's lack of total support for her situation. She gets in trouble with her boss for bringing her baby to work. And so on.
There are countless real issues that plague single parents. After watching "Life Happens", I don't feel like I've seen any of them. The movie has a light-hearted treatment of its issue which feels better suited to a rom-com. The child is a prop who exists so that we can see Ritter carrying him awkwardly from place to place.
The movie largely avoids any tender scenes between mother and baby. This would have been key to making the audience care about the protagonist, but the movie is more than happy to keep us at bay with lame sitcom dialogue and contrived situations. Eg.: Ritter has lied that her friend, played by Kate Bosworth, is really her son's mother, so of course there is a scene where they are together with the person she has lied to and have to keep the charade going, even though Bosworth isn't keen on the idea, and they both start passive aggressively insulting each other by insulting themselves.
Was there ever a sitcom which didn't use this situation?
The movie does have one scene that showed me something I hadn't seen before. Ritter is in bed with a guy who gropes her (unseen) breasts, and gets a spray of milk in the face.
She meets a dreamy hunk and lies about being childless. She has a falling out with her best friend over the latter's lack of total support for her situation. She gets in trouble with her boss for bringing her baby to work. And so on.
There are countless real issues that plague single parents. After watching "Life Happens", I don't feel like I've seen any of them. The movie has a light-hearted treatment of its issue which feels better suited to a rom-com. The child is a prop who exists so that we can see Ritter carrying him awkwardly from place to place.
The movie largely avoids any tender scenes between mother and baby. This would have been key to making the audience care about the protagonist, but the movie is more than happy to keep us at bay with lame sitcom dialogue and contrived situations. Eg.: Ritter has lied that her friend, played by Kate Bosworth, is really her son's mother, so of course there is a scene where they are together with the person she has lied to and have to keep the charade going, even though Bosworth isn't keen on the idea, and they both start passive aggressively insulting each other by insulting themselves.
Was there ever a sitcom which didn't use this situation?
The movie does have one scene that showed me something I hadn't seen before. Ritter is in bed with a guy who gropes her (unseen) breasts, and gets a spray of milk in the face.