Flipping the premise of Knocked Up on its head (and taking it in a far more, well, obvious direction), Obvious Child stars Jenny Slate as a struggling stand-up comedian who goes through a particularly bad break up, drinks a lot, and decides the best way of getting over someone is getting under someone else. It's just that, in her hastiness to do so, contraception somehow gets forgotten. When she realises she's pregnant, she does the obvious thing: not tracking down the guy so they can start a life together, but getting an abortion. And then doing the first thing, which ends up being more than a little awkward. Slate is best known for small appearances in sitcoms like Parks And Recreation, where she starred as fellow bit player Jean Ralphio's awful sister, and those comedic chops are certainly on show in Obvious Child. She also manages to bring some casual gravitas to a part that seems like it should be an Issue Film but really isn't, with the abortion being a plot point in an ongoing character study of a young woman trying to get her life together in modern New York. Which sounds like a dig, but it absolutely isn't. Obvious Child is a very smart, very human, and above all very funny film. See it!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
