Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

She's Having a Baby Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf February 26, 2021

Looking to mature as a storyteller after a few years exploring the pitfalls of adolescence in pictures such as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Weird Science,” writer/director John Hughes elects to make a movie about himself with 1988’s “She’s Having a Baby” (which was shot before 1987’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”). It’s not a bio-pic, but Hughes cherry picks parts of his life for the screenplay, exploring his early years of love, cohabitation, employment demands, and, eventually, pregnancy. It’s the helmer’s most personal statement on the ways of relationships and fears, and his most scattered endeavor, failing to wrangle a narrative to help line-up all his vignettes on domestic life and workplace frustrations. That’s not to dismiss the feature, which is filled with sharp observations on partnership and conception. Hughes’s ideas are crystal clear at times, resulting in hilarious scenes that reflect a pained reality about maturity. There’s just not a straight line to grasp in the work, giving it an episodic feel, with Hughes and his team clearly wrestling in the editing room to find some sort of shape to the effort.

Jake (Kevin Bacon) is becoming an adult, but he’s frightened of commitment, facing a future with Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern), his longtime girlfriend. While his best pal, playboy Davis (Alec Baldwin), tries to keep his friend away from domestic bliss, Jake takes the plunge, marrying Kristy, with the pair beginning the life together. Sent out on a job hunt, Jake dreams of becoming a published author, but he makes a living at an advertising agency, trying to support his wife, facing dismissal from his in-laws and pressure from his own growing insecurity. Fighting the stability of his suburban world, Jake’s tenuous sanity is challenged when Kristy is ready to have a baby, sending the couple on a wild journey of conception that tests their loving bond.

When we meet Jake, he’s sitting in Davis’s car on his wedding day, contemplating his options as he worries about his choices. He clearly loves Kristy, but the future is an imposing thing, with marriage threating to pull him off-course as a writer, forcing him into a domestic provider role he’s not sure he’s prepared to accept. It’s the first of many doubts to explore in “She’s Having a Baby,” with Hughes careful not to make Jake a monster, creating an anxious character who has no idea what to do with the responsibility of a shared life. From there, the screenplay tracks the passing years with Jake and Kristy, who begin their marital adventure in a small apartment, dealing with grad school headaches before jobs provide a better life in the suburbs (Shermer, IL, to be exact), giving them new challenges as they struggle to settle into a routine. Parallels to Hughes’s own history are present, with Jake trying to con his way into an advertising position at a top Chicago firm, endeavoring to become a breadwinner, making everyone happy but himself.

Such “normalcy” triggers Jake’s imagination, with Hughes wedging in dream sequences that touch on the claustrophobia of office life, fear of poverty, and the distortion of suburbia (captured in a dance number involving neighbors and lawn mowers). But most pointedly, the writing explores Jake’s feelings of lost adventure as a single man, periodically running into a Fantasy Dream Girl (Isabel Garcia Lorca) who teases untapped experiences. “She’s Having a Baby” is explored from Jake’s perspective, making the story about his wants and needs (the character provides narration as well, helping to stitch together a story), and while Hughes doesn’t exactly provide McGovern with a deeply dimensional part, he keeps Kristy interesting as she watches her husband flail about, tempted by Davis to ditch his problems, and deal with the evaporation of his literary dream. She’s present in the tale, and “She’s Having a Baby” makes it clear the characters love each other, working through challenges as the years pass, becoming stronger as a couple.

“She’s Having a Baby” feels like it was whittled down from a much longer cut. This has been the case with many of Hughes’s offerings, but editing isn’t always graceful here, finding scenes ending abruptly and the passage of time is hurried along. Jake and Kristy burn through experiences in the feature, which keeps the film moving along at top speed, but little truly sticks like it should. The picture is titled “She’s Having a Baby,” and Kristy’s pregnancy is only found in the effort’s final 15 minutes, which doesn’t sit right. Hughes can’t always communicate his vision for the material, but he fills it with crisp behavioral observations, and his casting is excellent, finding McGovern delightfully askew as Kristy and Bacon delivers one of his best performances as Jake, playing silly and sincere with unexpected vigor. The supporting cast is just as memorable, with Baldwin appropriately frayed as the envious Davis, and William Windom just about steals the movie as Kristy’s disapproving father, selling thinly veiled contempt with ace timing and glorious facial expressions.

She's Having a Baby Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

"She's Having a Baby" is arguably the best-looking feature John Hughes made during his short directorial career ("Curly Sue" being a close second), but Donald Peterman's wonderful cinematography isn't accurately represented during the AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation. Pulling an ancient master out of the vaults, Paramount tries to push the viewing experience to the limit, but it's difficult to deliver an optimal look at screen particulars with aged elements. Softness dominates here, with fine detail lacking all around, and consistency is strange, with some of the movie emerging with as much clarity as possible, while other scenes are a soupy mess, with light ghosting issues. Colors are passable, dealing with warmer tones for housing interiors and suburban tours. Club lighting brings out brighter neons and whites. Skintones lack definition, offering a slightly bloodless look. Delineation struggles with dark outfits, battling solidification. Source is in decent shape.

She's Having a Baby Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD mix delivers defined dialogue exchanges, with crisp performances and narration. Soundtrack selections supply a full sound and heavier beats, creating a percussive weight with rock and pop tunes, and delicate vocals are equally cared for. Scoring cues handle just as well, supporting dramatic and comic ideas with comfortable position. Surrounds are lightly utilized, offering mild atmospherics and musical moods. Sound effects are direct with comedic emphasis, and violent, cartoony encounters are appreciable.

She's Having a Baby Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview (24:10, SD) with John Hughes is an extended, rough cut chat about his career in 1986, where he was working on "She's Having a Baby" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" at the same time. While most of the conversation is found in final form on the "Some Kind of Wonderful" Blu-ray, bits and pieces of new information are found here, with Hughes detailing his quest to find universal themes and experiences for "She's Having a Baby," his hope for humor in the film, and his shaping of the soundtrack. There's nothing extensive here, but the interviewee does share his thoughts on autobiographical additions to his screenplays, and there's a little bit revealed about his next directorial endeavor, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

• And a Theatrical Trailer (2:14, HD) is included.

She's Having a Baby Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"She's Having a Baby" is rough around the edges, but Hughes's heart is all over the feature, filling it with memories, satire, and sincerity, giving it life in a way only he can. It's an intimate effort about life-changing events, sold with lively exaggeration and distinct personality, and it works, especially for those who've embraced Hughes's past efforts, now offered a chance to see him inch toward more adult-oriented storytelling he was clearly eager to take on.