"Friends with Kids" is a take on the old rom-com standard of "can men & women be friends" but in this case add a baby. Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) are great friends but are not interested in dating each other. They are friends with two couples Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O'Dowd) and Ben (Jon Hamm) and Missy (Kristen Wiig) and once these couples start families Julie and Jason notice how their friends' marriages change. So they decide to have a baby together while continuing to date so that they can have the baby and still have romance in their lives. Their friends watch on with great interest at this "experiment." Things seem to go well as Julie gives birth to a son and she and Jason settle into a 50/50 role of co-parenting while still looking for love however the arrangement is tested when they both meet others (Megan Fox, Edward Burns) and of course deal with their feelings for each other.
I think that while this film has a predictable sense to it there's still some good to it. The casting other than Megan Fox is solid. The actors really gel together so the viewer feels that they really are out at dinner with this group of friends. I think there is a commitment to character development and exploring more of the darker emotions than the typical rom-com film, which adds to this movie. I think that despite the reunion of many of the "Bridesmaid" cast that this film is not the raunchy comedy that film was - there's just enough language and explicit talk to get the "R" rating but otherwise it's not that "adult." It's notable that Westfeldt directed, starred, wrote, and co-produced (with partner Hamm).
The reviews I've seen on this film are mixed and I think there's a good reason for it - great cast, some good development of character/emotions, but it's just kind of a tired premise that I feel so many rom-com films have done before. Solid B.
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