Nine Months
Directed by Chris Columbus
Reviewed by Sujatha Fernandes As all the promotional hype promises, Nine Months is a movie about "the family". The starring couple, Samuel (Hugh Grant) and Rebecca (Julianne Moore), have a perfect relationship until Rebecca gets pregnant and wants to have the baby.
Nine Months contains lots of corny, mushy, sentimental musing about how, deep inside, every woman really wants a baby to become complete and how the traditional family is the natural way for people to live.
Eventually, however, this film does rise above the mush and moralising to take a funny look at a man who wants to keep domesticity and parenthood at arms length. All the signs show him that parenthood is a mistake — there is Samuel's young psychiatric patient who repeatedly states "My Dad's an arsehole, I hate my Dad", and Samuel's friends, Marty (Tom Arnold) and Gail (Joan Cusack), who no longer talk about the world or politics, only about diapers and dummies. Then there are his dreams of being devoured by a large female praying-mantis which sucks out all of his youth and life.
Part of the humour of the film comes from the fact that Samuel is a very unlikely father. He wants the beach divided into one section for adults and another for children. While shopping for toys he gets into a fist fight with a friendly, furry frog in front of a shop full of shocked parents and children.
Nine Months is full of quirky, comical moments. Rebecca's obstetrician is a nervous Russian physician (Robin Williams) who has only ever delivered animals and doesn't know the difference between an epidural and a pedicure.
The film ponders the question: is it better to spend one's life living the fast life with endless parties, freedom and good sex but living a meaningless existence, or is it better to settle down with a family and be secure, comfortable and stable. It should be pointed out that 90% of the population doesn't live either option, but this is Hollywood, and Nine Months is a feel good film worth seeing for a bit of a laugh.
Quirky, comical and confused
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