Kinda Pregnant
This wannabe Galentine’s flick falls flat
Amy Schumer’s newest Netflix film, Kinda Pregnant, isn’t the Galentine’s chick-flick it promised to be. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much—I never am with Schumer—but I was truly hoping for a mindless film that made me laugh.
The film centers on Schumer’s Lainy who is, to put it lightly, sent into a spiral after her long-term boyfriend suggests a three-some instead of proposing and her best friend reveals she’s pregnant. Thinking she, too, would be starting a family by this time in her life, Lainy tries on a pregnancy bump, just to see what it would be like. This, of course, sends her into a spiral as she tries and fails to keep up the rouse with her new friends. This is the point when hilarity should ensue, but it really doesn’t.
There is some flirty banter between Lainy and her new love interest, Josh (Will Forte), but these conversations seem to be funnier to the two characters than to the audience. As in many of Schumer’s other films, the humor relies strongly on cheap, immature fart and sex jokes that feel geared toward middle school boys, not millennial women (who I’m assuming are the main target audience).
The most impressive feat this film accomplishes is Lainy’s ability to fool her friends into believing her pregnancy story. Somehow she knows nothing about being pregnant (despite her weeks-long scam), repeatedly injures her stomach, and pushes increasingly ridiculous things into her shirt for her fake baby bump.
If the film has one saving grace it’s that it attempts to hit on deeper relational issues in a lighthearted manner. Lainy’s relationship with Megan (Brianne Howey), her childhood best friend, is strained as Megan gets everything Lainy thinks she wants and Lainy pulls away as she lives her secret double life. We end with a heartfelt moment between the two best friends in what is essentially a “you’re my real soulmate” conversation. While this should be a nice moment, it falls flat due to the lack of character development throughout the rest of the film.
