5/19/15

Unexpected

The 2015 Seattle International Film Festival press screeners enjoyed this harmless little comedy from the United States. Directed by Kris Swanberg and co-written by Swanberg and Megan Mercier, we watch as a high- school teacher and one of her students both discover that they are unexpectedly pregnant.

Our teacher is very concerned about the loss of opportunity for one of her most promising students, in the meantime she is trying to deal with her controlling mother and the bifurcation of her own life. She has to cope with the split between parenthood and a career.

We see:
  • Cobie Smulders ("Avengers") is Samantha Abbott, a teacher who wants what is best for her high-potential student; she wants her to have a college degree. We can see how she resembles her disappointed mother who wanted a fancy wedding for her.
  • Gail Bean ("Good Wood") Jasmine feels certain that she is on top of it, but she has school (with a 3.8 GPA), a job, and soon mother- hood.... She doesn't want to disappoint her teacher, but she has to be realistic.
  • Anders Holm ("Workaholics") John will never let Samantha down. He thinks the solution might be so send their infant daughter to work as soon as she is born. At least that makes Samantha laugh...
  • Elizabeth McGovern ("Downton Abbey") Carolyn wants to control everything about her daughter, including what she does with this baby. She had planned on a big wedding but now is focused on buying little girl clothes.
We are insulted to think the filmmakers are foisting off a two-month-old child with open eyes and a big grin as a newborn. However, we smile as we hear our two heroines express their goals: Samantha wants to design curriculum for high school science classes; Jasmine wants a job where she wears a suit to work. We enjoyed having two nice people to care about.
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Here's the trailer:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1031909401
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