Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Jennifer Westfeldt
Cast: Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Megan Fox, Edward Burns
MPAA-Rating: R
Release Date: March 9, 2012
Over the weekend, viagra the new dramedy Friends with Kids opened up in theaters nationwide. The film focuses on three couples– two married and one in a platonic relationship– who have children. One of the married couples in the film is played by Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig, who along with Chris O’ Dowd and Maya Rudolph, are reuniting from the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids.
But in this new film, Wiig plays a different type of role than the one she played in “Bridesmaids.” Although she has a few funny lines, Friends gives the Saturday Night Live performer an opportunity to show off her dramatic skills, with a character who is struggling with an unhappy marriage. Wiig pulls off this role nicely and proves how versatile she can be.
With that in mind, we’ve come up with a list of “5 Reasons We Love Kristen Wiig.” Some of these reasons may not surprise you, but each shows that Wiig is more of a star than people often give her credit for.
Click here for the full list.
Friends with Kids could have been a familiar dramedy about two friends planning to maintain a platonic relationship while raising a child. Instead, rx
this new film is surprisingly funny, wickedly smart and unmistakably heartwarming.
Jennifer Westfeldt—who previously brought us Kissing Jessica Stein—wrote, directed and stars in this story of three couples in different stages of their relationships. The main couple is played by Westfeldt and Adam Scott, who portray Julie Keller and Jason Fryman. They’re the best of friends who share everything with each other. They don’t mind calling each other in the middle of the night, and they love asking each “which would you rather,” a game where a person decides between two terrible options (i.e. Which would you rather do: die in a fire or a car crash?).
But Julie and Jason are both single in a world where everyone around them is married. They spend much of their time with two long-term couples. Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O’ Dowd) are a happily married duo raising a pair of rugrats.
Ben (Jon Hamm) and Missy (Kristen Wiig), by comparison, are young and carefree until they, too, welcome a child into their lives. That isolates Julie and Jason as two single people in their 30s waiting for their respective partners. Both want children, but neither can find someone to settle down with so they decide—on a whim—to have a child and raise it together as best friends.
Although this plot sounds uninspired, Westfeldt makes it feel fresh and fun. She’s aided by a wonderful script that showcases the flaws and frustrations of each of these characters. At an important scene late in the story the six friends sit around a table along with two more chums, played by Edward Burns and Megan Fox.
The sequence shows how much chemistry the cast members share, and it probably helps that four of the actors previously worked together in last year’s smash comedy Bridemaids. They inhabit characters you want to spend time with. It should be noted that Wiig is as wonderful as usual, but what stands out is how unexpected heartbreaking her performance is. Although Wiig is a comic actress, there are a few dramatic scenes here where she flashes her range. In Friends with Kids, she easily earns the audience’s sympathies and support.
Romantic films too often rely on predictable clichés and forgettable love stories. Friends is so much more than that. Walking out of the theater, I just wanted to hug this movie. The script is wonderful. The characters are well-written.
So far, Friends with Kids is my favorite movie of 2012.
Review by: John Hanlon