‘What I was looking for was not to be found but to be made…’
I love the films of John Hughes and I’ve been threatening to revisit them for ages. She’s Having a Baby may seem like an odd starting point given that it is one of his least successful movies but as my wife is indeed having a baby, this felt like the logical place to begin…
Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern) is besotted with her husband Jake (Kevin Bacon) but he can’t seem to bring himself to fully commit to the marriage. It doesn’t help that Jake’s fuck-boy friend Davis (Alec Baldwin) is always trying to lead him astray.
The premise of this movie is not an original one, and it’s also very male-centered. The idea of a man being scared of commitment feels old-fashioned now, as if to admit such a thing would be a weakness of sorts. Well, I found this movie a timely reminder that everyone should be afraid of commitment. Nobody wants to say goodbye to the carefree, responsibility-free days of their youth, but when the time is right, you know that it is right. And that is the central message of this movie. For all of Jake’s dalliances and fights of fancy, he does love Kirsty deep down. It just takes a potential tragedy for him to realise this. That particular sequence, that I won’t spoil here, is beautifully soundtracked by Kate Bush’s classic single ‘This Woman’s Work’ – a song that I had absolutely no idea was written specifically for this movie.
While his other films have become more iconic, She’s Having a Baby is one of Hughes’ most personal works and for my money one of his best. All the ingredients are here. The dialogue is great. The soundtrack is great. He wrings a solid performance out of Bacon and an even better one from McGovern – both of whom share an authentic chemistry. Apparently, this is Kevin Smith‘s favourite Hughes film and it’s easy to see why. This thing is all heart without being overly sentimental or trite.
With my impending fatherhood now mere weeks away, I’m researching this life-changing experience the only way I know how… by consuming lots of movies about fatherhood. She’s Having a Baby is one of the best.