She’s Having a Baby (1988)
59%RT Audience Score: 52%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern struggle to sustain a spark in She’s Having a Baby, a blasé adult romance that lacks the specificity and style of writer-director John Hughes’ more successful forays into teenage angst
She’s Having a Baby is a movie that tries to be relatable to everyone, but ends up being relatable to no one. Despite some clever moments, the film falls flat and leaves its talented cast with little to work with. The fantasy sequences are a bit too silly and detract from the overall story. It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s not a great one either. Maybe skip this one and watch something else about parenthood, like Three Men and a Baby or Look Who’s Talking.
Production Company(ies)
Vendôme Pictures, Pathé Films, Picture Perfect Federation
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
56 Salem Lane, Skokie, Illinois, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG-13
Year of Release
1988
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby Stereo
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Jun 4, 2013
Genre(s)
Comedy/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin, Isabel García Lorca, William Windom, Cathryn Damon, directed by John Hughes, written by John Hughes, Comedy/Drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Bob Thomas, Michael Wilmington, William Thomas, Carrie Rickey, Jay Boyar, Dave Kehr, Rene Jordan, Bill Chambers, Brian Orndorf, Matt Brunson, Cathy Burke, PG-13, marriage, fertility clinic, birth control, adult romance, high school sweethearts, newlyweds, dream girl, single best friend, fatherhood, maturity, daft fantasy sequences, cardboard cut-outs
Worldwide gross: $16,031,707
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $41,048,245
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,428
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 4,476,363
US/Canada gross: $16,031,707
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $41,048,245
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,154
US/Canada opening weekend: $3,827,520
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $9,800,140
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 963
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $20,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $51,208,826
Production budget ranking: 778
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $27,575,953
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$37,736,534
ROI to date (est.): -48%
ROI ranking: 1,674
Elizabeth McGovern – Kristy Briggs
Alec Baldwin – Davis McDonald
Isabel García Lorca – Fantasy Girl
William Windom – Russ Bainbridge
Cathryn Damon – Gayle Bainbridge
Director(s)
John Hughes
Writer(s)
John Hughes
Producer(s)
John Hughes
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (26)
Hughes has supplied some bright, even brilliant touches in dealing with the traditional cliches.
April 3, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Bob Thomas
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
If She’s Having a Baby were a funnier movie, if the fights were more cleverly written and Bacon and McGovern played them more deftly and lightly, it wouldn’t have that unpleasant edge — seesawing between romance and paranoia.
June 4, 2014
Michael Wilmington
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
By turns amusing and exasperating, it takes its time getting to the “Life is what you make it” point, but it’s sweet.
June 4, 2014 | Rating: 3/5
William Thomas
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
[The film] assumes that boys will be boys but that the mystical act of fatherhood will make a man of you. Trouble with She’s Having a Baby is, Hughes believes this without feeling obliged to develop it dramatically.
June 4, 2014 | Rating: 2/4
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
It’s a measure of how little maneuvering room the movie leaves its performers that a lovely, sensitive actress like Elizabeth McGovern makes virtually no impression.
June 4, 2014
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
She’s Having a Baby wants to be everyone’s story, but its hollowness makes it no one’s.
June 4, 2014 | Rating: 2/4
Dave Kehr
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
Stubbornly inert. [Full review in Spanish]
June 28, 2022
Rene Jordan
El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
…I assumed the film’s subject matter was too adult for 13-year-old me (and it was), but…I’ve decided that when it comes to She’s Having a Baby, “it’s not me, it’s you” suffices.
March 3, 2022 | Rating: 1.5/4
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central
Hughes’s ideas are crystal clear at times, resulting in hilarious scenes that reflect a pained reality about maturity.
September 6, 2021 | Rating: B+
Brian Orndorf
Blu-ray.com
The daft fantasy sequences are a waste of time and get in the way of an otherwise pleasant movie.
February 26, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
[Hughes] proves he also can handle life on the other side of graduation.
December 9, 2017
Cathy Burke
United Press International
Director Hughes’ effort to follow his teenagers into adulthood only results in cardboard cut-outs.
June 4, 2014
Film4 Staff
Film4…
Plot
Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren’t helped by Jake’s friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film on Fresh Kernels.
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