Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Challenges of impending parenthood turn the lives of five couples upside down. Two celebrities are unprepared for the surprise demands of pregnancy; hormones wreak havoc on a baby-crazy author, while her husband tries not to be outdone by his father, who's expecting twins with his young trophy wife; a photographer's husband isn't sure about his wife's adoption plans; a one-time hook-up results in a surprise pregnancy for rival food-truck owners.
What to Expect When You're Expecting is a by-the-numbers ensemble romantic comedy that loosely adapts a pregnancy guidebook into a multi-storyline narrative. The plot juggles five couples across predictable arcs — celebrity pregnancy chaos, adoption anxiety, surprise hook-up baby — hitting every expected beat without much surprise or depth. The ensemble cast (Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick) is reasonably capable and Banks in particular brings some genuine comedic energy, lifting the acting above the material. Cinematography is functional and unremarkable, the kind of glossy but anonymous visual style typical of mid-budget Hollywood comedies. The film offers nothing particularly distinctive in conception or execution — it's a formula ensemble comedy that follows the Valentine's Day/New Year's Eve playbook closely. The ending resolves all five storylines with tidy, feel-good warmth but no real earned emotion, feeling rushed and overly convenient given how shallowly each couple was developed.