For an independently produced comedy that mostly revolves around adults talking to each other — sometimes with child accessories — in varying degrees of inebriation, Friends with Kids is finding a modest amount of success. It?s not perfect, but somehow it manages to be funny without any accidental drug trips, grandmas shooting guns at the dinner table, or Tom Cruise rescuing Cameron Diaz from a crashing plane. Writer-director-co-star Jennifer Westfeldt has returned us a bit to the days of comedies of manners, instead of the awful dichotomy between shrill ?romantic? comedy and Apatovian gross-out comedy where Hollywood seems stuck these days. In that spirit, here are four lessons future adult comedies should take from Friends with Kids.
[Spoilers ahead.]
1. Skip (most of) the bathroom jokes.
Bridesmaids it isn?t. While there is one major on-screen poop joke in Friends with Kids, it actually made me breathe a sigh of relief, because at least we didn?t have to see the bodily function in action. As soon as Megan Fox walked across from a baby with ?explosive diarrhea? — diaper ominously absent — I started dreading seeing an explosion in her direction. Hence my gratitude, and surprise, when it never came. (This is an admittedly low bar — eventually I?d love to see Adam Scott or Kristen Wiig in a romantic comedy that ignores the bathroom altogether — but hey, small steps.)
2. Write romantic comedies about the occasional decent human being.
Sure, Scott?s Jason spends most of the movie as a Barney Stinson-like asshole, but the story ultimately hinges on his growing up. I wish Westfeldt had given her Julie a little more to do, but she?s at least a relatively sensible woman who, when rejected by the person she loves, moves away and tries…
Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin Ashley Tisdale Asia Argento Aubrey ODay Audrina Patridge Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne Bali Rodriguez
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