Let the dog in!

Knocked Up is out on dvd, so I finally saw it. Like a lot of parents, movie theater visits have catapulted into that memory category called “previous good times.” Who knew I’d treasure those days I opened the paper (not online), see a showtime, walk out the door and See That Show!

Amazing, in its simplicity.

Now, it’s got to be a movie of BIG screen proportions, worth the price of admission and a hot sitter at home with the Bainbridge Island meter running.

But meanwhile, back to Knocked Up: I enjoyed it on two levels in two different ways.

One, the comedy that it is, full of jokes on dating, men/women relationships, men’s, or rather, perpetual boys’, relationships, (think Animal House), and the humor emerging from accidents of life versus plans for life.

Two, the utter despair the pregnant woman suffered when she discovered her chosen OB who swore he’d be there for the birth was out of town for a bar mitzvah. She was forced to go with an OB she rejected previously. The new doctor had another agenda, opposite from her birth plan. Plus, he was a jerk.

OK, this is supposed to be funny? Funny like a hernia!

I can relate too well. Although the doctors I had were not outright jerks, nothing about my daughter’s birth went as planned, and clearly the doctors’ goal and my goal were not exactly aligned. All those child birth classes and I barely knew anything about the numerous ways they would attempt to induce me.

For days.

Nurses finished their twelve-hour shifts of tending to me and my new machine friends frenemies, only to be surprised to see me in the same spot when they returned to work days later.

Who knew you were supposed to bring reading material, and lots of it, to have a kid? Once again, failed to be mentioned in childbirth class.

Anyway, you’d say it all turned out well, healthy baby and healthy mom, but it was nowhere close to the plan. It was way off the board of expectations, buried in a footnote, and the whole process, ultimately, a disappointment to me.

So, I applaud Judd Apatow for having the knowledge to include this aspect of pregnancy in his comedy. He must be listening to the females in his life.

And while it’s hard for me to laugh, there is some comfort in realizing the commonality of this issue if it makes it to the big screen in a broad comedy, right?

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