Pregnant Pause

Posted by Peter Smith
Ah, what a fecund year 2007 has been at the cinema. Katherine Heigl got Knocked Up. Keri Russell found herself in the family way in Waitress; yet another waitress tested positive in the independent drama Bella. And sassy sixteen-year-old Juno (opening in New York Dec. 5) joined the baby-bump club. Congratulations, ladies! Or not. In every one of these movies, the pregnancy iss unplanned. And in every one of these movies, the mothers-to-be opt not to terminate the pregnancy. Somewhere, the cinematic doppleganger of Randall Terry is doing a little dance of joy.

This isn't so much about taking those movies to task. Bella in particular was made with a specifically "pro-life" agenda; the other three were comedies of situation, and abortion doesn't lend itself to big yuks (Citizen Ruth notwithstanding). But for some time now, the supposedly left-leaning movie world has studiously avoided stories about women opting for abortion — which makes the raw guts of Tony Kaye's documentary Lake of Fire all the more startling for acknowledging this hard reality.

Thirty years ago, Kay Corleone announced to Michael in The Godfather Part II that she had aborted their unborn son rather than bring another child into this "Sicilian thing." Today, look who's carrying to term: A career woman who risks her big shot after a one-night-stand. A woman in an abusive relationship. A high-school student. You could call these brave narrative decisions. Or you could wonder if "lib'rul Hollywood" hasn't decided that "pro-choice" is all well and good, except when it comes to alienating potential ticket-buyers.

— Scott Renshaw
+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT
Posted Nov 29 2007, 04:00 PM
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Comments

That Fuzzy Bastard said:

Even more than Godfather 2, what's really missed is Fast Times At Ridgemont High.  The lead girl gets pregnant after an unpleasant one-night stand.  She gets an abortion.  She goes out for burgers.  And that's it.  It's not a big symbolic thing, it's not a particularly big thing at all---it's just one more unpleasant thing to do, but no more unpleasant than, say, attending high school.  That kind of casualness, rather than any big pro-choice sloganizing, is what's really needed.

November 29, 2007 4:45 PM

vanillabeanvegan said:

you mentioned keri russell in waitress, but failed to mention her pro-life stand against her anti-baby father in august rush...

November 29, 2007 10:49 PM

sean said:

of course posting an abortion snippet is going to open up some difficult discussion.

'that fuzzy bastard''s comment intrigued me, as it popped up quite often during 'knocked up''s theatre run.  i don't entirely agree with it, because an abortion isn't always a casual thing. in my experience with planned parenthood, most mothers find having an abortion an extremely difficult thing.  i think that the choice for jennifer jason leigh's character to approach her abortion in 'FTARH' with such blatant casualness comes from the same space as heigl's character in 'knocked up' - they help the pace of the plot.  

neither film is supposed to be a blatant comment on the state of abortion in america (though i do concede that 'FTARH''s casualness does imply something a bit more than 'knocked up'). i think that's more in the area of 'vera drake', 'citizen ruth' or 'four months, three weeks, two days'.

to assert that having an abortion is 'no more unpleasant... than attending high school' perhaps speaks to you having a particularly pleasant high school experience, not so much to what it's like to have an abortion....

November 30, 2007 11:38 AM

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