I have over 1,200 DVDs, 3,000 CDs and a couple hundred books; over half of them the average person would be completely embarrassed to own. I, however, defend my purchases.
NINE MONTHS
I don’t know why I used to love this movie when I was a kid, but I fucking loved the shit out of this movie circa 1996. When I was kid it was a frequent occurrence in the Kelly household to either payperview movies and record them on the VCR or hook up two VCRs and make copies of every movie we rented from Blockbuster. Yes I’m admitting to the 90’s version of pirating movies. My cousins, siblings and I watched Nine Months constantly. So when a few weeks ago I found it in a five dollar bin; I knew I had to buy it.
Nine Months was released in 1995. It was a remake of the 1994 foreign film Neuf mois. The remake is written and directed by Chris Columbus (the director not the Italian Explorer), and served as Hugh Grants first American leading role. Through the moderate success of this film Grant went on to have a wonderful career as America’s favorite Charming British Stereotype (so charming that his public arrest with a prostitute barely fazed his career).
Nine Months follows Samuel (Grant) and Rebecca (Julianne Moore). Rebecca begins to have baby fever shortly after their five-year anniversary. Rebecca soon drops a bomb on Samuel; she’s pregnant. The film follows them through her Nine Months of pregnancy with a delightful cast of eccentric supporting characters including the anti-children best friend Sean (Jeff Goldbum), the baby making machines Marty & Gail Dwyer (Tom Arnold; Joan Cusack) and the Russian Obstetrician & Gynecologist (Robin Williams). Samuel must face his issues with children in order to save his relationship with Rebecca.
Nine Months is far from a perfect film. It currently holds 25% freshness on rotten tomatoes (the only film in Grant’s career with a lower freshness rating is 2009’s Did You Hear About the Morgans; which sounds like the title of a Tyler Perry movie). So let’s start with some of the problems with the movie. For starters, every “problem” in the movie is resolved in roughly 10 minutes of screen time. It’s an extremely predictable film (I mean that as more predictable than most predictable movies) and finally it contains a cliché Man fighting a Barney look-a-like scene that appeared in multiple mid-90’s films and TV shows. Nine Months is Knocked Up without the conflict.
What Nine Months does provide us with Tom Arnold at his funniest (hardly a selling point but whatever), and incredible performance from Robin Williams and Hugh Grant at his most charming. Many of the reviews refer to the movie as “extremely forgettable” but I was shocked while rewatching it over a decade later how much of the movie I remembered. I don’t doubt that this movie 15 years later still continues to be a great date flick and probably has gotten more guys laid than most of the movies in your DVD collection (assuming you’re the average Geekscapist).
Cliché, predictable and at times forced; Nine Months is still funny (though dated) and delightful. I’ve seen a lot of romantic comedies and while this isn’t in my top 10; it’s far from my bottom 10 (I’m looking your direction Must Love Dogs and Because I said So).