Movie Review - Unexpected

Unexpected (2015)

Starring Cobie Smulders, Anders Holm, Gail Bean, and Elizabeth McGovern

Directed by Kris Swanberg

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Anchored by nice interaction between Cobie Smulders and Gail Bean as, respectively, high school teacher Samantha Abbott and her student Jasmine, Unexpected is a relationship dramedy that details what happens the two aforementioned women find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and how this both bonds them and changes their lives.  Both Samantha and Jasmine were destined for better things -- Jasmine had plans to attend college and Samantha intended to leave her shuttering inner city school to work at a museum -- but impending motherhood ended up beckoning them instead.

Smulders and Bean complement each other quite well and they certainly add depth to their characters.  Unfortunately, the film doesn't quite know what to do with them after about forty-five minutes.  Writer-director Kris Swanberg kept hitting the same dramatic and comedic notes over and over again and while these notes aren't particularly irritating or grating, the repetition prevents the movie from really progressing.  Unexpected is pleasant, but not overly ambitious and while not every movie needs high aspirations, this one needed to have a bit more story in order to really make it worth a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  C