At first glance, a movie called "Knocked Up" may sound like the typical Hollywood flick that trashes traditional values and mocks morality. After all the title suggests the kind of vulgar insensitivity that Hollywood seems to have about sex, children, and commitment. Some conservative writers panned the film, probably without seeing it. I am glad I gave it a chance.
Certainly this film has its moments that you do not want your children to see. The main male character smokes more pot than George Burns smoked cigars. On the other hand he also is unashamedly proud of his religious faith, in this case Judaism. Like many men of his age, twenty-three, he devotes his life to good times, meaning getting high and chasing women. The female lead has just found out that she has gained an on air position with that most shallow of networks, E!. Both have lifestyles into which a child will not fit.
They meet at a bar and end up at her place, the back room off of her sister's house. Here comes another scene that you would not want your children to witness. As you might have guessed, she gets pregnant.
The film's important message starts here. Its two least appealing characters encourage the couple to get an abortion, although neither can actually say the actual word. The male character's fat and obnoxious friend advises that he take his girl to a shmabortion clinic. The girl's mother, a shallow and materialistic baby boomer, tells her that her career is too important and that she must "take care of it." The mother gets particularly nauseating when she mentions that another family member preserved her career by "taking care of it" and "she has a real baby now." Obviously the writing team, led by Harold Ramis of Ghostbusters fame, wanted to make the abortion option look as unpalatable as possible. Neither character considers it for a second. The rest of the film shows the two trying to figure out how to commit to each other as much as they have to the unborn child. The male gives up drugs and gets a real job, enabling his girlf friend to move in with him. Along the way the girl's sister's marriage comes close to divorce, but they manage to struggle back to happiness.
This movie in the seventies would have shown a happy pair of people going their separate ways after an abortion while the married family would have broken up. Although "Knocked Up" is no traditional morality tale, it shows people struggling through real life challenges and making the right decisions along the way. Hollywood does excrete a lot of filth, but this film carries some good messages.
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