Friends with Kids

With a cast that boasts Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Chris O'Dowd, and Adam Scott, writer-director Jennifer Westfeldt's Friends with Kids seems destined for bawdy comedy, yet offers a more mature and dramatic look at thirtysomething romance. Julie (Westfeldt) and Jason (Scott) are long-time friends so close that they can't imagine sleeping together…until they decide it's the best way to get the child they want without waiting for Mr./Ms. Right. Before long, co-parenting proves so blissful that Julie second-guesses her feelings for Jason, right as he meets an uninhibited and enviably flexible twentysomething (a lackluster Megan Fox). Julie parries with a seemingly perfect match of her own (for some reason not the ever-dashing Hamm, but the milquetoast Edward Burns), and her BFF bond with Jason is tested. The core cast's spunky chemistry makes the film's first half an absolute joy, filled with playful zingers and dirty one-liners. However, the romantic rivals bring an abrupt tonal shift into drama, and their very screen presence—or lack thereof—cripples this dramedy's pithy momentum. Still, Westfeldt and Scott are a winsome team, and, as her earnestness and exhuberance exude in every frame, Friends with Kids is ultimately lovable in spite of its flaws.