"Babyfever" ** 1\2 (out of ****)For women, how strong is the urge to motherhood? Do women feel pressured by society to have children? Why is it so difficult for women to find a man they want to marry and have children with? If these questions sound interesting to you than Henry Jaglom's "Babyfever" (1994) should prove to be quite a treat.
At the core of "Babyfever" is an interesting social concept. How do women juggle a professional career and the desire to be a mother, especially a generation that grew up during the women's lib movement. They were told they could have it all, but, in the real world that is easier said then done. Life is messy. It is not easy to have a career and be a mother. So some women hold off on having a child but then they start to think their biological clock is ticking away. And that is where our movie comes in.
Victoria Foyt stars as Gena. A thirty-something year old woman who quite frankly doesn't know what she wants out of life. Or does she know but she just feels she won't find it? Currently she lives with James (Matt Salinger). They discuss having a future together. Getting married, buying a house, having children, your typical "American dream". But Gena is reluctant. Does she really want to have a baby? Does she want to have a baby with James? Does she even love James?
Gena is kind of a lost soul. What does she want out of life and how is she going to find it? She's not a young woman anymore. After a certain age the mistakes we make become harder to correct. Gena doesn't want to rush into any major life decisions like having a baby or getting married until she is absolutely sure it is the right thing for her. Though, one ask to ask, can one ever be completely sure?
After a night of love making Gena tells James she forgot her birth control. This prompts a discussion if it would be a bad idea for them to have children. But Gena's life becomes more complicated when an old flame, Anthony (Eric Roberts) enters the picture and tells Gena he has been thinking about her. He wants to get back together and have a baby with her.
All of this sounds pretty good so far. I enjoyed the set-up and took an interest in Gena's dilemma. On some level I could relate. But then the film takes a wrong turn.
"Babyfever" from this point onward completely centers on a baby shower being thrown for Diana (Jackie Moen). At the shower the women only talk about babies and their inability to have any, mostly because they haven't found someone to have them with or their current partner doesn't want any. All of these women feel their time is running out.
At one point during the shower one of the women says, can we please talk about something else. We are all educated women, can't we change the topic. And that is an excellent point and the downfall of the film.
"Babyfever" has one idea in its head. Have women talk about wanting to have a baby. But in the process Jaglom and his screenwriter (and wife) Foyt, make all the characters one-dimensional. They are smart, intelligent women, with careers, and they can't talk about anything else? Why couldn't Jaglom show us more of Gena and James relationship? Why couldn't we see Gena at work more and have her realize how difficult being a mother and having a career would be? In short, why couldn't the film flesh these characters out more? At times it doesn't feel like these are real people.
I like "Babyfever" best when it had a plot. A woman caught between two men. A woman left alone with her thoughts deciding what was best for her future. When we get stuck at the baby shower for the next hour, at times, I lost interest. The film goes on way too long and simply starts to repeat itself. How long can we hear a roomful of women say they want to have a baby?
The director, Henry Jaglom is an, at times, brilliant filmmaker. Sadly he is not very well known to a majority of mainstream audiences. Jaglom makes very personal independent films. He has been doing that for more than 30 years. His first film was "A Safe Place" (1971). Jaglom's films feel largely improvised. They have a natural quality to them. In general he stays away from big name Hollywood stars. He mostly uses amateurs, for example, this is Victoria Foyt's debut screen performance.
And of all the performances in the film I would have to say Foyt's is probably the best. I would even go as far as saying this is probably the best performance I have seen her give. She seems extremely at ease here. I could attribute that to the fact she is working with her husband and did co-write the script but Foyt has worked with her husband before. Maybe it has to do with the fact this was a personal project for her. The film is dedicated to their child, Sabrina. Whatever the reason, Foyt has a natural screen presence.
"Babyfever" has the look and feel of a documentary. To be fair, there are times the characters speak in everyday terms. The dialogue is not poetry. We can relate to them. They speak the way we speak. That is very hard to accomplish. The films of John Cassavettes never or rarely feel that way to me. The dialogue doesn't come off as polish and natural. With Jaglom it sounds better.
If you're not familiar with Henry Jaglom's work, I don't think this is the place to start. Of his more recent films I would say his best is "Festival in Cannes" (2002). His most mainstream film is probably the romantic "Deja Vu" (1998). I also like his "Last Summer at the Hampton's" (1996) quite a bit. Some critics, like Gene Siskel and Michael Wilmington have said that is his best film. I have reviewed two of his films on here previously, "Hollywood Dreams" (2007) and "Irene in Time" (2009), sadly neither one was very good. Regardless I would still urge movie lovers to find the work of Henry Jaglom.
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