Great foundation, but could use some work

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2007)

Based on the trailers I had seen for this movie, I went in pretty excited to see it. Everything beforehand, including trailers and reviews, had pretty much indicated that I'd be in for a "laugh-a-minute." And for the most part, I was.
I was a big fan of the whole main plot of the story: boy and girl meet, hit it off (albeit with the help of alcohol), and have a one-night-stand, only to meet up again 8 weeks later for Allison to tell Ben that she is pregnant. So goes their story of how they need to try to make a relationship work, for the baby's sake. Great! I was totally in the mood for this, and really enjoyed it.
The pitfalls of the movie were few, but enough. Mainly, they were just aspects of the film that I personally did not find necessary. The subplot of the Debbie-and-Pete-and-their-bad-marriage was interesting at first, but wore thin when both characters started acting so completely ridiculous and unbelievable. Debbie did seem slightly neurotic, but not so neurotic that she would follow Pete to a stranger's house oh a whim that he was cheating, and then ask him to not come home after she found out that he was, in fact going to fantasy baseball meetings behind her back. By the same token, why was it necessary for Pete and Ben to venture all the way to Las Vegas and get high on mushrooms to realize the problems in their relationships, and how they should fix them? These two instances seemed to me like drawn out examples of what was wrong in Debbie and Pete's relationship, an issue that, in terms of the movie, could have been shortened by a lot.
Likewise, the frequent scenes with Ben and his (very high) friends grew old, and while there were some very funny lines, these scenes just stopped serving a purpose after a while. Though I have to admit, the scene with all of them in the waiting room at the end was hysterical.
Finally, I wish that Ben had decided to get his act together sooner. I really liked the person he had grown into by the end of the movie, and would have loved to see that progress little by little throughout the movie, instead of in the last 25 minutes or so.
While the last three paragraphs have indicated a sort of dislike for the movie, it isn't that way at all. I enjoyed this film a LOT, and there were some moments that had me laughing so hard, I thought I'd pass out. When all is said and done, you really will leave the theater with a happy feeling!