Mark Reviews Movies: BABYSPLITTERS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 23, 2020

Nobody in Babysplitters really thinks through things. That's the central joke of the movie, but it's also the central reason to be annoyed with and by these characters. It's a self-defeating gag.

The plot has four allegedly intelligent people, comprising two married couples, deciding to share a child. Jeff (Danny Pudi) hypothetically likes the idea of having a kid, but his wife Sarah (Emily Chang) wants one now. Their friends Don (Eddie Alfano) and Taylor (Maiara Walsh) are in a similar situation but reversed: He wants a baby, and she would rather wait.

The decision, then, is that Don will father Sarah's pregnancy, and the couples will split custody. They all get the joys of parenthood, but they also receive a periodic escape to enjoy their own lives.

Beyond the legal and ethical concerns of this proposed arrangement (which the movie glosses over), it's not particularly funny. If the four-way parents even seemed like smart or caring or thoughtful people, we might buy into this concept as a reasonable idea. Then again, only people who aren't smart or caring or thoughtful would even consider it, so once again, the whole premise cancels itself.

Instead, all of these characters are self-absorbed and mostly unsympathetic, which might be why writer/director Sam Friedlander attempts to forgo the attempts at humor later, as the characters have serious moments of doubt, regret, and pain on account of all the terrible decisions they've made up until then. It's too little—and far too contrived and manipulative—too late.

As for the humor, Friedlander likes to drag things out, until even the few amusing ideas have lost any sense of what the joke was or was intended to be (Take the lengthy scene in which the pregnancy is attempted the natural way, as even the characters seem to realize the gag ended before it actually does, or the repeated and elongated montages of Jeff trying to envision happiness as the end of his jealousy). Then, there are the random jokes, featuring Jeff's co-workers and a pointless scene in which a buddy suggests a business based around massaging breast implants.

The impression is of a filmmaker who really believes in the clever potential of his material, his sense of humor, and his ability to shift tones at will. Like the main characters of Babysplitters, he didn't think through any of that.

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