Friends with Kids

Writer-director Jennifer Westfeldt examines the nature of friendship and reveals how parenthood defines character in this witty, contemporary romantic comedy. Julie Keller (Westfeldt) and Jason Fryman (Adam Scott) are single, thirtysomething best friends who live in the same rent-controlled Manhattan apartment building. As the story begins, the pair are dining at a chic restaurant with two married couples—Missy (Kristen Wiig) and Ben (Jon Hamm), and Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O'Dowd)—exchanging comic banter and staring with contempt at parents with noisy kids when Leslie suddenly reveals that she's pregnant. Four years later, down-to-earth Leslie and Alex have decamped to Brooklyn with their two children; Missy and Ben have a son, although their once-passionate sexual relationship has disintegrated; and Julie feels her own child-bearing time-clock ticking away. So Jason agrees to impregnate Julie, offering to share child-care on alternate evenings so she can continue to search for Mr. Right. After the birth of their baby, Julie takes up with sensitive, divorced Kurt (Edward Burns) while Jason gloms onto sexy dancer Mary Jane (Megan Fox). But a stress-filled confrontation during a Vermont getaway changes everything. Working with real-life partner Hamm, Westfeldt's strong suit is delineating articulate, adventuresome characters and building nervous tension when they come face-to-face with harsh, everyday reality. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by writer-director Jennifer Westfeldt, costar Jon Hamm, and cinematographer William Rexer, ad-libs and bloopers (12 min.), a “making-of” featurette (8 min.), and three segments with optional commentary: deleted scenes (8 min.), “Scene 42: Anatomy of a Gag” (6 min.), and “MJ Rocks at Video Games” outtakes (4 min.). Bottom line: a solid extras package for a winning film.] (S. Granger)