Freelancette

A quick plot summary, for those who can't figure it out from the title (or who were born abroad and thus may be unfamiliar with the eponymous American slang): girl meets boy, girl has sex with boy, girl accidentally becomes pregnant with boy's baby, girl decides to keep baby, but isn't sure what to do about boy.

It really bugged me how the girl (Alison Scott, played by Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl) didn't give abortion a second thought. Alison is a radiantly gorgeous, ambitious young producer for an entertainment news program who was just offered an on-screen promotion. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for her, and she knows it. The boy (Ben Stone, played by Seth Rogen) is a pothead slacker with suspect career aspirations who is currently living off the insurance settlement from an accident that took place in his teens.

While I can buy the idea of these two getting it on (Ben's benignly jokey and cute in a cuddly, bearish sort of way), I was not convinced that Alison would sleep with Ben a second time -- never mind attempt to raise a child with him! More than that, there's no way a woman like this, a woman in the prime of her personal and professional life, who could have any man she wants and has at least twelve good child-bearing years to find a good one, whose dream job of interviewing celebs on television just fell in her toned, non-pregnant lap, would chose to give birth to this ill-conceived baby. Okay, maybe if she was an extreme, fundamentalist religious fanatic, but that's the only reason I can come up with. There's nothing in this movie to make us think that Alison is obsessed with kids, or with her biological clock, or mortality or even Ben! If this were real life, a smart, self-possessed career gal like Alison would seriously consider terminating her pregnancy, and something pretty intense would have to happen in order to convince her to keep the baby. On second thought: if this was real life, Alison and her sister (with whom she's very close), would split for the abortion clinic the second they saw that double line on the pregnancy test. Why does this otherwise clever, thoughtful movie insist on thumbing its nose at reality, and feminist politics?

Yes, I caught (and admittedly liked) the "smashmortion" line, but that was just between boys, and doesn't do anything to explain why Alison isn't taking the abortion option -- it merely hints at why the movie isn't (my guess: to avoid alienating viewers, to keep things light and fun). Alison's mother was the only one who brings the idea up to her, and not in a very persuasive or supportive manner. In fact, the mom is portrayed as cold, unsympathetic and rather unlikable. And this is the only pro-choice voice we (and Alison) will hear. If the movie wants to avoid talking about abortion (which I think it does), then why include this at all?

The refusal of mainstream television shows and movies to even utter the word "abortion," never mind incorporate the option into the plot, has long been a feminist cause celébre. So it was no surprise that the no-nonsense, avowedly feminist web site Women's eNews jumped all over the movie as soon as it came out. "Judd Apatow's 'Knocked Up,' a raunchy comedy in a cinema near you, turned abortion into the "A" word, in league with the "N" word and other epithets so taboo as to be bracketed off from regular speech," wrote WeN commentator Sandra Kobrin. Kobrin puts the film in historical context, quotes a pro-abortion joke from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," and also mentions how conservatives have embraced "Knocked Up's" unintentionally family-friendly message. I support her in pointing out the movie's obvious shortcomings. However, she kind of misses the point that "Knocked Up" is a comedy. In refusing to even crack a smile at this undeniably excellent, funny film, she comes off as shrill and militant.

As a feminist, I shouldn't have to sacrifice my sense of humor for my principles! Kobrin and others like her, who condemn "Knocked Up" for its botched handling of the abortion issue without acknowledging the film's other merits, make us pro-choice feminists look like humorless, lame, anti-comedy radicals. I don't want to jump on that bandwagon; I don't think that attitude does anything to raise awareness, understanding and empathy for the pro-choice movement.

Regardless of what those on both sides of the abortion issue may think, Judd Apatow wasn't trying to sell an ideology; he was trying to sell a good, funny, believable story. And it's for that reason that he should have addressed the abortion issue more directly. In interviews, Apatow has mentioned an abortion debate scene that was eventually cut from the movie. But that debate wasn't between Alison and Ben, or Alison and her mother or sister -- it was between Ben's friends! Even with that missing scene, we learn nothing about Alison's intellectual process or value system, or about how she made the decision to go against logic, reason and emotion to keep this baby.

Look, I know the movie is called "Knocked Up" for a reason, but it would have benefited in terms of integrity and believability if Apatow had just devoted one scene, a few short minutes, to a frank, realistic discussion of Alison's options, or a scene that helped us understand why she made such a counterintuitive decision.

This isn't too much to ask. The Irish film, "Breakfast on Pluto" with Cillian Murphy, has a great scene in which a pregnant character (Ruth Negga) decides at the last minute to keep her baby. She's waiting at the abortion clinic, prepared to go through with the procedure, when her friend (Murphy) makes an offhand comment that has a profound affect on her, and precipitates a change of heart. When the attendant comes over to talk to her, Negga's character says with mock surprise, "This is an abortion clinic? Oh, I thought it was a fertility clinic!" then jumps up and hightails it out of there. It was funny, smart, logical, and took just a few minutes to move the story along (the baby becomes a key plot point). There's no reason "Knocked Up" couldn't have included a scene like that.

I think Judd Apatow is a comedic genius, so it really bums me out that "Knocked Up" is so good, yet flawed in such an important way. But I'm not going to shed any more tears over the weird abortion dodge in this film. After all, it's supposed to be a comedy.

Update:
Dana Stevens (a feminist with a great sense of humor) has an excellent, balanced review of "Knocked Up" in Slate, and a follow-up piece that talks about the "politics of shmashmortion" in this film and others.