'Anti-abortion' propaganda

Rating: 1/10 (4 January 2008)

On a positive note, this movie offers a lot of funny (but too smart) lines and laughs. I can commend on the acting, esp. of main characters. There is a huge problem of believability in this film, however, since this movie does not belong to the genre of 'fantasy.' A sixteen year old troubled (a point her style in general as well as some direct remarks affirms) girl's pregnancy in a middle-class household can't simply be as smoothly accepted and handled as in this movie. The girl is unrealistically blasé about her nine month long pregnancy and giving her baby away for adoption; her father and step-mother are laudably calm, one might say, but also very irresponsible in warning her of future impact of this adoption for her life (a point numerous professional studies confirm); they also don't even bring up the issue of safe sex neither about her past sex nor her future sex. The movie, however, is not just unrealistic, but it is clearly a blatant propaganda in its brief presentation of the abortion clinic scene. The worker and the patients there are both presented as dark and ridiculous at best. The worker's offer of condom is outright denigrated. Given the difficult choices too many teen age girls and women in difficult situations deal with in the face of their unwanted pregnancy, I'm worried by the potential impact of the popular and critical success this movie enjoys.