So I saw a short video of Kinda Pregnant on Instagram and I decided to watch it, one of those clips where Amy Schumer is walking around with a fake belly bump that she wore, acting confused, and something about that immediately pulled me in enough to press play this last night.
The movie follows Lainy, an English teacher in Brooklyn who's been low-key obsessed with becoming a mother since she was a small girl herself, Now in her forties, out of a break up, and worst of all, her best friend Kate just told her she's pregnant, you know that feeling when somebody you love gets something that you have secretly been hoping for? It's from there that Lainy will be sitting when this all begins.
Rather than battling that feeling like a regular human being, Lainy does something wild, she puts on a fake baby bump. She doesn't put it on for a costume party, she doesn't put it on for a joke, she just puts it on, goes out in public, to yoga class, now everyone is stepping aside for her on the subway. And that's the essence of this film and watching one impulsive decision spiral because the attention feels too good to give up.
Through the pregnancy Lainy ends up getting close with a couple who are actually expecting and their single friend Josh played by Will Forte. Josh is immediately smitten, the problem? He thinks she’s actually pregnant.. Every time they’re together Lainy has to keep the lie going, there’s a kind of tension in watching someone fall for a person who believes something completely false, you know it’s coming. You know the truth will break through.. You keep hoping maybe even dreading, the moment it does.
One of Lainy’s coworkers at work becomes the voice in the story she’s always side eyeing Lainy and nudging her toward honesty, it is that part i liked that, the film gives someone the job of saying loud "This is not okay." In a lot of comedies the lie just keeps going until the audience forgets it’s even wrong, Here someone calls it out, that matters.
Now I have to be honest. The premise had much potential, Jealousy, identity, The pressure women feel about motherhood and timelines, It could have been much more than just a funny setup, Instead the film mostly plays it for surface level laughs, I kept waiting for a moment where the movie would sit with Lainy’s loneliness her fear of being left by her friends her sense of loss, Instead it cuts back to another dumb gag with the fake belly, It’s like the film kept forgetting what it was supposed to be about.
Schumer is doing what she does best though, that loud, chaotic, slightly unhinged energy she's known for, If you enjoy her comedic style, you will get what you came for, but the writing around her doesn't always give her the material to make Lainy feel like a real person instead of a character built entirely around one gimmick.
By the time the truth comes out, and of course it always comes out, the fallout felt somehow rushed to me, all that buildup, the friendships strained, the romance complicated, and then it resolves a little too neatly, like the film ran out of time to actually deal with the mess it created, I wanted consequences that lingered a bit longer, forgiveness that felt earned rather than convenient.
Me I can not say that there weren’t moments that made me laugh, there was, the movie has that slightly silly energy, It does not try to be a deep character study , because It knows what it is, if you go into it expecting light entertainment nothing too heavy you will probably enjoy your evening with it.
Sometimes a movie doesn’t need to change your life, sometimes it just needs to fill an evening, honestly that Instagram clip did more convincing than the actual film’s marketing ever could.
Rating: 70/100
