| Obvious Child stars Jenny Slate as Donna Stern. She’s an aspiring stand-up comedian, and night after night she bares her soul for everybody to see who she is, to relate to her, to laugh at her, and to laugh with her. Her material is certainly risqué but it’s also just life. She challenges everybody with acknowledging the facts of life and then just laughing at the absurdities of it all. | | 2014
Directed by: Gillian Robespierre
Screenplay by: Gillian Robespierre
Starring: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy and
Gaby Hoffman
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After the first night we see her on stage, dissecting and insulting her current relationship, her boyfriend breaks up with her. An hilarious break-up scene, and later, an even funnier post-break-up night of heavy drinking and drunken phone calls. This all leads to an especially hilarious stand-up routine. Although, to clarify and shed some light on how well crafted this film is, her stand-up routine was hilarious to us, the film viewer, not very funny at all to the audience at the comedy club. And then this leads to an even funnier one-night stand.
To make this as obvious as possible, this is one funny movie. Slate takes the hysterics of a break-up and other romantic complications hysterical and she also shows the true vulnerability that Donna has to bare every day in her chosen field. The best way to one’s heart is through the funny bone, and this film has you laughing so hard from the very beginning, that you are a ways into it before you even realize that it has something to say and that the emotional reality is actually present throughout the film.
The social stigma that this film is having a conversation about is that Donna is going to have an abortion. After all, she knows she couldn’t possibly be a mother. She wears dirty underwear, drinks way too much, and is still financially-reliant on her parents. It remains funny through-out Donna’s decision making and counting down the days until her appointment, but in the mean-time, the one-night stand re-enters her life, and we get a romantic comedy. It’s not just funny, it’s emotionally-resonant and endearing.
Jenny Slate’s Donna is the Obvious Child – the title character from Paul Simon’s hit song. The song is about accepting your current state of life, realizing that you have aged whether you noticed it or not. If you’re no longer a child, it’s time to stop acting like one. The film captures the meaning of the song so perfectly. It captures that moment in Donna’s life when she realizes that she has to grow up and confront the realities of her life. Luckily for us, she does so hysterically.
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