Hollywood and the Unwed Mother - Page 3


Unlike so many of her screen predecessors, Heigl isn't ashamed of her pregnancy: her chagrin is mostly the inconvenience of it. Both she and Rogen look to their parents for advice, but we're shown that the older generation has had minimal success with marriage, leaving the younger generation with little in the way of models for their own lives. Heigl's mother (Joanna Kerns) still thinks like a budding socialite, mostly concerned with the surface appearance of things and the proper timing of well-ordered lives. She finds her daughter's pregnancy messy and out of order, rather than a potential tragedy. Rogen's father (Harold Ramis) has been married and divorced three times, and wisely points out to his son that he doesn't consider himself especially qualified to dole out marital advice.

Heigl is initially appalled at the prospect of hooking up with Rogen, but then the pregnant couple slowly and hesitantly begins to talk to each other, and to build a relationship. Heigl learns to ask for what she wants and Rogen learns to take her wishes less as assaults on his masculinity than as guidelines on how to conduct a grown-up marriage.

With a real child in the offing, even Rogen's guy-pals begin to act like godparents, cleaning themselves up and gaining maturity. The movie is an examination of how, under the influence of a forthcoming baby, all of these dozen or so immature people start thinking like parents, and thus like adults.

Despite its vulgarity and raunchiness, Knocked Up is among the more marriage-friendly, family-focused films on the screen in years. It approaches marriage without cynicism, conveying the message that, when facing the responsibilities of parenthood, everyone can grow up enough to live happily ever after.

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