Directed by:
Charles ShyerCinematography:
William A. FrakerComposer:
Bill ContiCast:
Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, Harold Ramis, Sam Wanamaker, James Spader, Pat Hingle, Mary Gross, Britt Leach, Shera Danese, George Petrie, Katherine Borowitz (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
J.C. Wiatt (Keaton) thinks she has it all together. Beautiful and talented, she's on the road to certain success. So when an adorable baby girl comes into her life by way of a distant cousin's will, it's J.C. who breaks out in a rash! Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But this lady won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it alland onher own terms too! (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (1)
On the one hand, Baby Boom is an entirely progressive comedy showing how unhelpful and unfair the corporate environment of Reagan’s America was towards a woman with children who had to make much greater sacrifices than her ignorant colleagues and incompetent partner. At the same time, it is a film whose protagonist does not fight against discrimination in the workplace, but constantly retreats from it. She leaves the company and the city, but in the end, when she is in a very favourable negotiating position, she doesn’t try to change the unjust systemic conditions (or least confront the company’s exclusively male management with them). On top of that, she discovers within herself the maternal instinct, the seeming lack of which is the main source of humour during the first half of the film, and she even falls in love with a handsome doctor. The emancipatory idea that it is possible for even a woman to “have it all” (as her boss says during dinner in the introduction) is thus served up together with a celebration of traditional female roles. In any case, Diane Keaton is great in her role as a manager who is not a walking stereotype, but rather a believable mix of incompatible qualities (neurotic and chaotic when it comes to her child, but goal-oriented and practical when it comes to business), and even in terms of the visual aspect – unlike contemporary examples of the genre – Baby Boom is not an entirely run-of-the-mill romantic comedy in which only shots and counter-shots would alternate in badly lighted interiors. 65%
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