In Friends With Kids, writer and director Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) and BFF (played by Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott) make a pretty crazy decision. After watching their best friends reproduce and rapidly descend into romanceless nuclear familial hell, they decide that their desire for kids shouldn’t rob them of their desire for the perfect person, and their lack of ability to find the perfect person shouldn’t rob them of their desire for kids. The solution? Have a baby together, split the responsibility down the middle, and continue dating-as-usual. It all seems like a shockingly excellent plan, especially when dating-as-usual includes Megan Fox‘s boobs and Edward Burns‘ giant penis. But then, the inevitable (life, feelings) happens, and when the going gets tough, the tough move to Brooklyn.

The movie’s stellar cast puts comedy favourites in a rom-com setting. Maya Rudolf and Kristen Wiig play women who are strong departures from their characters in Bridesmaids – Rudolf is married with kids to a younger man (Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd), and Wiig is in a sex-crazed-turned-Fight Club marriage with Jon Hamm. Scott and Westfeldt’s relationship is a pitch-perfect rendering of the complexity of modern interactions, where self-doubt and self-denial can create the dangerous cocktail so often confused for platonic friendship. In the end, and with lots of laughs, the relationships depicted in Friends With Kids teach us a few lessons we should all remember, and will probably remind you of everyone you know. Oh, and did we mention the cute kids? Because there are a lot of cute kids.

Friends With Kids is in theatres now.

~ Haley Cullingham