Click here!

What to Expect When You're Expecting (12A)

What to Expect When You're Expecting (12A)

Comedy, Drama, Romance

A look at love through the eyes of five interconnected couples experiencing the thrills and surprises of having a baby, and ultimately coming to understand the universal truth that no matter what you plan for, life doesn't always deliver what's expected.


The critical consensus

It’s corny, phoney stuff, and lucky to have a game cast trying to carry it to term.

**(*)(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 20/05/2012

An awful ensemble comedy to complete that Valentine’s Day / New Year’s Eve box-set, complete with sexist clichés.

**(*)(*)(*)Ellen E Jones, Total Film, 23/05/2012

What To Expect When You’re Expecting is the kind of witless schmatz-fest that gives women’s pictures a bad name; dodging all the difficult questions about modern pregnancy, it offers the kind of safe, antiseptic drama that only a Stepford wife might enjoy.

**(*)(*)(*)Eddie Harrison, The List, 23/05/2012

Needless to say, the end result is torture to sit through, though maybe that’s the point: like the birthing process experienced by the characters, the film is so painful to endure that when it’s all over a joyous feeling (albeit of relief) does wash over you.

*(*)(*)(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 24/05/2012

Elizabeth Banks and Rebel Wilson [are] worth a smile as the knackered mum-to-be and her dopey assistant. As for the rest of the cast, their babbling and faffing is about as amusing as a bad case of haemorrhoids.

**(*)(*)(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 24/05/2012

Favouring pratfalls over wit and insight, the picture offers only occasional respite in a “dudes group” of dads who meet in the park with their offspring, led by Chris Rock.

**(*)(*)(*)Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 24/05/2012

Almost surreally free of laughs.

*(*)(*)(*)(*)Tim Robey, The Telegraph, 24/05/2012

It’s exactly what we expected it to be. If you’re going to have a baby it’d be a good thing to watch. It shows all the things people say to you.

Kayt Bochenski & Nelly Twort, Little White Lies, 24/05/2012

Someday Hollywood will think of women as more than fallopian tubes in heels; until then, we're stuck with this kind of project.

**(*)(*)(*)Mike McCahill, The Guardian, 24/05/2012

The miracle happening inside me was that I managed to sit through the whole film without throwing up. But it was a close thing.

**(*)(*)(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 25/05/2012

What to expect from When You’re Expecting is a comedy about childbirth that could drive you to celibacy.

**(*)(*)(*)David Edwards, Daily Record, 25/05/2012

What to Expect ... is exactly what you're expecting.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent, 27/05/2012

t It’s Valentine’s Day with more babies and fewer attractive people. Neither a date movie (run for the hills, boys!), nor a chick flick (who wants to know the icky bits?), its intended appeal is a poser. Heavily pregnant people and those with newborns don’t get out much, do they?

**(*)(*)(*)Angie Errigo, Empire Online, 21/05/2012

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

Comments: 0 (Add)

To post a comment, you need to sign in or register. Forgotten password? Click here.

Find a show


Search the site


Find us on …

Find us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFind us on YouTube

Click here!