Expecting

Running time: 92 mins

Steph is expecting a baby. Steph wants all of her closest friends to share in her home-birth, whether they want to or not, and has invited them all to her 24-hour labor party. As the labor stalls, tension mounts, and this "touchy-feely " experience soon turns into the delivery from hell. Anita is a doctor, in addition to being Steph's domineering, self-absorbed older sister. Julia is Steph's midwife, a "New Age" type, who tries to maintain a sense of calm in a sea of turbulence. However, once Julia gets called away on a personal emergency, chaos rules supreme. The partygoers also include Steph's best friend; a local TV entertainment reporter; Anita's henpecked husband; Steph's current lover who desperately wants to be a dad; Steph's shy former lover, who desperately wants to marry Steph; and Steph's neighbor and creative collaborator, who is secretly trying to arrange a birthday party for Anita, and may have another surprise for everyone. Magnificently improvised dialogue from a terrific cast of comedic actors in addition to a tremendous filmmaking style from director Deborah Day create an atmosphere that is at times madcap and at others, moving. Giving birth has never been this much fun. - Sandy Wolf