Upcoming Maternity Movie
In class we talked about the overwhelming prevalence of paternity-related movies, but there is actually one (the only one that I could think of anyway) maternity-related movie coming out in December called Juno. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to extraordinary reviews–I think it got the second prize there–and is about a teenage girl (Ellen Page) who becomes pregnant by a classmate (Michael Cera) and goes through a process of trying to provide for her baby. She chooses to have the baby and picks out a couple to adopt it (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) and I don’t know where it goes from there, just that most critics thought it was hilarious and touching.
Interestingly, the film was directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) who is the son of Ivan Reitman, who directed Junior, an incredibly paternity-focused movie.
–Brandon
October 16th, 2007 at 11:04 am
This is all amazing, Brandon. But notice that she is compelled to give up the baby, thus cutting short her involvement in the imaginary realm. It’s a rewrite of all of the ancient myths of adoption, such as Oedipus and Moses.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Well if we are going to talk about mothers giving up babies, what about that new movie August Rush, where August is an orphan who just knows that his parents are going to come back for him someday. And it turns out he is a musical genious and so were his parents and then it turns out they DO want him! The previews are so magical feeling, like anything can happen because of the music. They almost make me tear up but Freddie Highmore could read the phonebook and I would be enthralled. That kid is adorable.
oh, Here is what IMDB says:
“August Rush” tells the story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York’s Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), August (Freddie Highmore) uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.
hum. . . .