THE BOTTOM LINE: The film almost never depicts graphic injuries, but it’s clear that some people are killed. The only moments that might be too upsetting for middle-schoolers are in a rehab center where real veteran amputees are seen learning to use prosthetic limbs. The film includes occasional strong, partially muffled profanity and mild sexual innuendo. Characters briefly drink, and there’s brief implied nudity.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Several couples, wed and unwed, contemplate parenthood in this star-studded anthology film. High-schoolers, prepped by reality TV, may find the five couples’ travails of passing interest, despite the sparse laughs. Jules is a TV weight-loss guru and celebrity dance champion. She’s pregnant by her dance partner but thinks she can keep up her frenetic schedule. Photographer Holly and her partner are about to adopt, but their finances are shaky. Wendy is a sentimental breast-feeding advocate and kid-lit author. She and her husband have complexes about his race-car driver dad and his extremely young wife. Rosie, a budding food truck chef, has a fling with a rival chef, and her pregnancy throws them together. The “dudes’ group,” a posse of dads who take their babies on power walks, agrees to keep their mistakes within the group.
The bottom line: The dialogue features crass language dealing with bodily functions, midrange profanity and sexual innuendo that is steamy enough to put the film in R-ish territory. Two birth scenes are verbally graphic. The script includes detailed talk about breast-feeding, and even more graphic talk about the discomforts of pregnancy, from flatulence to bladder control.
Where Do We Go Now? High-schoolers who have a personal or intellectual interest in the Middle East and its recent history could be charmed by Lebanese director/
actress/co-screenwriter Nadine Labaki’s touchingly whimsical call for peace. Set in a tiny village, the Christian and Muslim women of the town are all friends. The men, on the other hand, are prone to break into sectarian violence, and scuffles start over stupid things. So the widow Amale and her Muslim and Christian friends bring in a traveling troupe of young, flirty Ukrainian “dancers” to distract the menfolk. Between the Ukrainians’ gyrations and their hashish, the men of the village are disabled long enough for their guns to disappear.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Characters engage in scuffles and fights, but any serious violence, such as the death of a child caught in the crossfire in a strife-torn neighboring village, occurs off-camera and we see only his body. The women use hashish and tranquilizers baked into sweets to sedate the men. The story includes mild, romanticized sexual innuendo.
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