Obvious Child (Jenny Slate)

[Holmes]

Now in select theatres, slowly expanding nationwide.

My review/thoughts -

Adrift and despairing after the abrupt end of a relationship, Donna, a standup comedian, has an unprotected one-night stand with an earnest stranger and later learns she is pregnant. Obvious Child, lifting its title from the 1990 Paul Simon song, charts her angst and self-exploration as she resolves to have an abortion and ponders whether to tell the father. This is a wonderful vehicle for star Jenny Slate, a comedienne known for her one-season involvement with Saturday Night Live, as well as peripheral roles in series such as Bob's Burgers and House of Lies. Anxious, lewd, self-doubting, sexy, and otherwise riveting, she sets the screen aflame, dispensing ace one-liners and memorable comic anecdotes while also revealing an interior depth of painful longing. She is an idiosyncratic spitfire on par with Greta Gerwig. It is a performance as authentic as it is charming, and it definitely elevates this brief, minor-key film. Obvious Child is also set apart by its light, yet inquisitive and sensitive consideration of abortion. The female characters share conversations regarding the procedure, its history, whether they regret undergoing one, and so on and so forth. Of course, there are close-minded people who will react with rage toward any story of pregnancy which does entirely demonize or at least rapidly sidestep (hello, Knocked Up) the option of abortion, but I for one welcome a straightforward, non-sermonizing cinematic depiction of this most controversial facet of modern life. Others will, too.

B+