Parents' Guide to What to Expect When You're Expecting

The film is a fairly funny, but also formulaic, ensemble comedy. Don't expect this loose adaptation to resemble the original book, What to Expect When You're Expecting—or to have an original point of view. Though it dispenses little bits of information that could be useful, health advice isn't really the point. Rather than being surprising or refreshing, it trots out tired old clichés. The women are "pressuring" the men to start a family; the men are resisting and need coaxing (and bribing). Moms are extra careful when they have the babies; dads will let them ramble through war zones, practically without regard for safety. There's an emphasis on how women feel whole after having children (as if they weren't before). And while starting a family can take a few different forms (adoption, natural birth, or cesarean), it seems only attainable by heterosexual couples. The discomforts that women experience during pregnancy are played for laughs; we've heard bladder control jokes dozens of times.

Still, What to Expect is funny in a breezy, uncomplicated way, and it owes a big thanks to its talented ensemble for that, from Banks' hilarious turn as an earnest mom-to-be (who transforms throughout the movie) with an unspoken rivalry with her too-gorgeous mother-in-law (Brooklyn Decker), to Chris Rock's supporting role as the truth-spouting leader of a daddy wolf pack. J. Lo is charming, even if her role is superficially sketched out and her character feels like she's being a savior for an African child. And though their storyline seems tacked on to appeal to younger viewers, Crawford and Kendrick are adorable. Ultimately, watching this movie is no labor, and for some viewers—those with young kids at home, perhaps, who want to spend their scant alone time watching an effortless film?—that may be enough.