Quiet 'Unexpected' a proving ground for Cobie Smulders
<b>Mini-review: 'Unexpected'</b>
Cobie Smulders' unadorned, low-key, ego-drained performance as a single, 30-year-old pregnant Chicago schoolteacher serves as the attractive hub of Kris Swanberg's carefully observed domestic drama "Unexpected."
Viewers who expect some trauma with their drama might be disappointed by this life-level slice of reality in which the greatest conflict for Smulders' Sam is deciding how she can balance a new job at Chicago's Museum of Natural History - which she really wants - with a newborn baby she hadn't planned for.
The thin plot revolves around Sam getting pregnant at the same time as one of her prize high school students, Jasmine (Gail Bean, making a memorable cinematic debut).
Sam bonds with Jasmine on more than a mentoring level. She reaches out to Jasmine over a racial, age and economic divide to share their mutual situations.
(One of the movie's chief deficiencies is a serious discussion of the ethical ramifications of a teacher becoming too personal with a student, for whatever reasons.)
Sam's live-in boyfriend John (a personable Anders Holm) proposes over breakfast pancakes the morning after Sam gives him the news.
He's so excited, he moves everything out of a backroom and repaints it for their baby. (Whoa, John. You did this without consulting Sam about the color? A beginner's big mistake.)
Elizabeth McGovern plays Sam's judgmental mom, none too happy about the baby's timing and how the happy couple has reacted to it, getting married at City Hall and all.
After playing on the TV series "How I Met Your Mother" and working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. employee in the Marvel movies, Smulders proves herself to be class-A actress in this quietly honest drama, a rich and highly detailed third film from Chicago indie filmmaker Swanberg.
Because "Unexpected" comes from a woman's point of view, any similarities to John Hughes' 1988 comedy "She's Having a Baby" - outside of McGovern, who played the expectant mom - are purely coincidental.
<b>"Unexpected" opens at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. Rated R for language. 90 minutes. ★ ★ ★ </b>
Swanberg and co-writer Megan Mercier will participate in a post-show Q&A following the 7:20 p.m. show on Friday, July 24. Chicago film critic J.R. Jones will moderate the discussion.