Conference bookie::movies

710.0. "Junior" by SMAUG::LEHMKUHL (H, V ii 216) Tue Nov 29 1994 11:20

Well, I can't abide Schwarzenegger and I'm not wild
about DeVito, but I do enjoy Emma Thompson, so I had
to see this film.

I was pleasantly surprised.  It is a very funny film.
Ahhnold plays it straight and does a damn good job.  The
premise, which sounds ridiculous on the surface (man
gets pregnant; been done before), is developed with
enough sensible science to be believable, if not
practical ("I think the baby is tangled in the lower
intestine").

The concept: a biogenetic scientist and a fertility 
doctor trying to get an anti-miscarriage drug into 
human testing get turned down by the FDA.  So they 
insert a fertilized ovum into the peritoneal cavity 
of Ahhnold.  The idea is that he'll test the drug 
(spiked with progesterone) for the first trimester, 
then stop, causing the fetus to be conveniently 
absorbed by the body.  But he gets all broody and 
wants to take it to term.  

Everyone at the screening I attended responded well.
What was interesting is the men in the audience seemed
to be getting a bigger kick out of the comedy than
the women.  Now, never having been either pregnant 
or a parent I could only relate to a lot of the gags
through hearsay from fertile friends.  However it 
was a definite hoot.

Thompson was delightful, nicely low key.  People keep
thinking Thompson is mis-casting because they
associate her with Merchant-Ivory and Branagh's 
Shakespeare films.  But her background is comedy.  
Largely television (drawing a veil over her series), 
but there are also her performances in "The Tall Guy" 
and "Impromptu" where she was brilliant.

Recommended.

dcl