Knocked in

So I got a comment on my extraordinarily succinct post about the movie Knocked Up (wherein I spent two sentences merely agreeing with the good reviews the film got) that pointed out a post on The Nation's site. That post alluded to another post on Slate (which took to task the treatment—or lack thereof—of abortion in the film), then spoke somewhat critically of the scenario that provides the plot of Knocked Up (schlub has one-night-stand with hottie).

My friend's comment inquired about my thoughts on those pieces.

Crap.

I wasn't looking to analyze the film or any suggested message. That was why I pithily parroted the gist of the reviews I saw. But now that a sort of gauntlet has been thrown…

I'm a bit more inclined to focus on the Slate piece, and on that I suppose I think that trying to make Judd Apatow's comedy into the example of how movies (and, by inference, TV) "handle" abortion in the current climate is twisting it for one's own agenda.

I grasp that everyone has those topics that can't help but push their buttons, and that's what inspired these writers, and that they need to generalize to emphasize their theses. I am not criticizing using artistic pieces as inspiration for discussion; that's what every term paper about literature has been.

However, the movie is called "Knocked Up," and if Alison just has an abortion (as her mother suggests), one really doesn't have much of a plot. It's all good and well to suggest (as the writers on those sites do) that Apatow pusillanimously dances around the topic, but I think that's obligating the film to be more than I got the feeling (when watching the movie) it was trying to be. To dwell too much on abortion would have changed it into a "message" movie or a satire, but that's what Citizen Ruth brilliantly was (the Slate piece astutely mentions that); Knocked Up was a comedy that wasn't trying to polarize anyone—it was trying to be funny.

The humor stemmed from imposing the ultimate in responsibility on one who sought a much lower level of responsibility. Ultimately pretty straightforward fish-out-of-water sort of thing, in a manner of speaking. If Seth Rogan's Ben character had been dashingly handsome and ridiculously successful, that would force the comedy to revolve around the taming of a womanizing lothario rather than the forced growth of a "schlub"; while that very well could have been funny, I'm of the opinion that it wouldn't have been the movie Apatow set out to make.

The women who wrote these pieces are entitled to their interpretations, and can cite those interpretations in their arguments. Such is the beauty of art. However, to lament how a comedy with a title like "Knocked Up" is not "A Referendum on Contemporary Reproductive Rights" does strike me as putting a bit too much onto it.

Conceivably if you want a movie that addresses the issue of abortion more head-on (or a movie where the hot guy chooses the frumpy woman), the best solution might be to make one. Heck, then when it bombs at the box office you can complain about how the public didn't go see your movie and the inherent sexism in our society. There'd be no ambiguity about what the film maker thought, because you'll be the film maker; you won't have to speculate about your own political/philosophical inclinations.

Of course, that was just my reaction; I could be wrong.

Thus you may get some idea why I spent only two sentences on the movie in the earlier post. I wasn't looking to contribute to a lot of artificial bluster created by this nonsense known as the blogosphere. And now I have; I became part of the problem (and unnecessarily generalized just there, so I can fit in).

But never let it be said I don't try to make my fans--er, my readers happy.