For over 20 years, Nora Ephron was the darling of romantic movies. The list of favourites trips off the tongue – When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, You’ve Got Mail – with their warmth, wit and clear-eyed observation. And the moment she’s name checked in Pamela Adlon’s feature debut, Babes, is when the penny drops and you realise what you’re watching. An Ephron antidote.
Not that she’s a target in this brash story of female friendship – there’s an affection for her that results in a knowingly Ephron-esque ending – and a premise that she would have relished is in very different hands. Dawn (Michelle Buteau) and Eden (Ilana Glazer), who also co-wrote the script) are lifelong friends and are both about to face some radical changes. Dawn has just had her second baby, so she’s navigating a more complicated domestic world. Resolutely single Eden likes the idea of being a mother, but unexpectedly finds herself pregnant after a one night stand. With the father off the scene, she decides to raise the child on her own and suddenly the two women are no longer the friends they once were.
But this is essentially a comedy, so those serious moments are few and far between yet, given what’s gone before, the scene when the cracks emerge in the friendship is unexpectedly sensitive and full of unspoken hurt. Until then, we’ve been treated to an energetic, often foul-mouthed, ride driven by the two women and their encounters with motherhood. Breaking waters, giving birth, breastfeeding – just about every physical aspect of having a baby is there, yet this is not the gross-out comedy you expect. Most of the laughs come from the indignities and pain and they’re talked about in more than ample detail, but we actually see very little. The film is remarkably protective, sheltering the audience from watching anything that could make them feel uncomfortable. With one exception. A very long needle. Trypanophobics, you have been warned.
Inevitably, the film falls on the shoulders of its two lead actors and both Buteau and Glazer deliver a joyously colourful double act, one that both propels the narrative and provides the laughs. The script, however, can’t maintain the pace and there are times when the impetus drops and the action sags. And it’s at those moments when you give thanks for the film’s shameless scene stealer, John Carroll Lynch as the exasperated and follically-challenged doctor who delivers both women’s babies. After his dreadful comb-over makes its debut, you can’t wait to see what happens next. It’s a shame, however, that Stephan James doesn’t get more screen time as the father of Eden’s baby: there’s clearly more to the character and he’s despatched in a sadly abrupt manner.
It’s not a classic – pacing is its main problem – and it won’t be to everybody’s taste, but for those that take their comedy neat or with only a smidge of sugar, there’s much to enjoy in Babes. Bear in mind, though, that when you emerge from the cinema with a smile on your face, you might suddenly notice more pregnant women than you ever knew existed. That’s said from experience.
★★★
In UK cinemas from 9 August / Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Stephan James, Hasan Minhaj, Sandra Bernhard / Dir: Pamela Adlon / Universal Pictures / 15
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