Making Babies
Huber Bros. Productions
Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya
Grade: B-
Director: Josh Huber
Screenwriter: Josh Huber
Cast: Eliza Coupe, Steve Howey, Glenne Headly, Ed Begley Jr, Bob Stephenson
Release Date: March 29, 2019
At some point during Making Babies Gordon (Bob Srephenson), a brother of John Kelly says: “The first one was a bliss, the second was a game changer, the third one…. I wept”. “With joy?” asks John, “No, with fear; I had a massive anxiety attack” responds Gordon. He is talking about the angst and joys of having kids.
Making Babies deals with the first part. Katie (Eliza Coupe) and John Kelly (Steve Howey) just moved to the suburbs, after five years of marriage, with a plan: he is going to develop his brewery start-up business and she is going to have a baby. It looks like none of these plans are going to come to fruition. John is developing batches of unsatisfactory beer products and Katie can’t get pregnant. But we can’t say they did not try.
First they try the “manual/natural way” which fails; then come multiple visits to Dr. Remis (Ed Begley Jr.), a fertility doctor. “Are you prepared to do what it takes?” he asks with a demeanor of a commanding officer. So off to war they go with sperm count, ovulation stimulation, painful hormonal injections, mood swings, erratic behavior, I.U.Is and expensive I.V.Fs., all of which come with encouragement from Dr. Remis, who keeps saying before each failing treatment: “I have great feeling about this”. They even try an anti-western-medicine holistic approach which does not help much either.
Director and screenwriter Josh Huber provides us with an unoriginal screenplay while his cast does magic with the material.
Eliza Coupe and Steve Howey show good chemistry as Katie and John, a couple desperate enough to go through the financial and emotional trials of procreation.
Ed Begley Jr. gives an excellent performance of a mad scientist/fertility doctor by day, and a history professor at a community college by night. At one hilarious segment he comes to a bar, dressed in a general’s military uniform circa 1944, and addresses the quality of John’s sperm without a slightest concern for his patient’s privacy.
In her last role, Glenne Headly as Katie’s mother, Bird, plays a sensible woman with a perfect comic timing.
Good film editing by Jay Deuby and Michael Swingler keeps the plot flowing, and conventional cinematography is done by Matt Edwards. Tacky costume design by Swinda Reichelt is done in accordance with popular suburban dress code. But good performances, editing and cinematography can’t compensate for a tepid screenplay, done by a first-time director and screen writer Huber.
The most one can say about Making Babies is: “The operation was not a success but the patient survived!”
86 minutes. Not Rated © Tami Smith, Film Reviewer
Story: C+
Acting: B
Technical: B+
Overall: B-
