Baby Boom

**Baby Boom** is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Shyer. The film was released on October 9, 1987 by United Artists.

## Plot

Yuppie J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton) discovers that her deceased long-lost cousin has left her a 14-month-old baby girl named Elizabeth (Kristina & Michelle Kennedy) as inheritance.

## Cast

* Diane Keaton as J.C. Wiatt
* Kristina & Michelle Kennedy as Elizabeth
* Sam Shepard as Dr. Jeff Cooper
* Harold Ramis as Steven Buchner
* Sam Wanamaker as Fritz Curtis
* James Spader as Ken Arrenberg
* Pat Hingle as Hughes Larrabee
* Britt Leach as Verne Boone
* Linda Ellerbee as Narrator
* Kim Sebastian as Robin
* Mary Gross as Charlotte Elkman

## Production

"Baby Boom" was shot on location in Los Angeles, California, New York City and Vermont (in Weston, Manchester & Peru).

J.C.'s office building was filmed at 375 Park Avenue and E 52nd Street in New York City. The library scenes were filmed at LA High Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

The airport scene was filmed at JFK International Airport in Jamaica, Queens, New York at the TWA Terminal.

The Dance Hall scenes were filmed in Grange Hall, Manchester, Vermont, and Hopgood's store were filmed in Peru, Vermont.

Kim Basinger was offered the role of J.C. Wiatt, but she turned it down and the role ultimately went to Diane Keaton.

To film Elizabeth sleeping, the crew members were required to darken the set until the baby was asleep, at which point the lights would be gradually raised and then the camera would begin rolling.

Writer\producer Nancy Meyers became pregnant with her second child during principal photography of "Baby Boom."

## Box Office

During its opening weekend, "Baby Boom" debuted at #3 at the box office (behind "Fatal Attraction" and "Hello Again"), grossing $$1,357,413 during its opening weekend and $26,712,476 worldwide.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Baby Boom" has an approval rating of 76% based on 33 reviews with an average rating of 6.20\10. The site's critical consensus reads: *"Baby Boom struggles to impart its feminist ideals, but Diane Keaton's winsome leading work helps keep things breezily entertaining."*

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that the film *"isn't much more than a glorified sitcom, but it's funny, and it's liable to hit home."*

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said that the filmmakers were *"not afraid to be sophisticated and screwballish in the best '30s tradition, and they know just how far to exaggerate for laughs without leaving touch with reality entirely or destroying sentiment. The humor in Baby Boom is sharp without being heartless."*

Roger Ebert gave "Baby Boom" a rating of three out of four stars, stating that *"all of [the film's storyline] is too good to be true, of course, but that's why I enjoyed it."* Ebert also wrote: *"Baby Boom makes no effort to show us real life. It is a fantasy about mothers and babies and sweetness and love, with just enough wicked comedy to give it an edge.The screenplay, written by producer Nancy Meyers and director Charles Shyer, has some of the same literate charm as their previous film, Irreconcilable Differences, and some of the same sly observation of a generation that wages an interior war between selfishness and good nature."*

Diane Keaton's performance was singled out by Pauline Kael from The New Yorker, who described it as *"a glorious comedy performance that rides over many of the inanities in this picture (...) Keaton is smashing: the Tiger Lady's having all this drive is played for farce and Keaton keeps you alert to every shade of pride and panic the character feels. She's an ultra-feminine executive, a wide-eyed charmer, with a breathless ditziness that may remind you of Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier."*

Ted Mahar from the Portland Oregonian said: *"One of the most important things about Baby Boom, aside from being amusing all the way through, is that Diane Keaton gets her first chance to carry a comedy all by herself."*

Writing for the Miami Herald, Bill Cosford wrote that Diane Keaton is *"funny when she's tough, and funny when she's soft."*

However, the Washington Post's Rita Kempley called it *"an '80s fable based on a beer ad philosophy"* while Variety wrote that the film *"tries to be a lot funnier than it actually is, and handsome production design and cinematography do little to compensate for its annoying over-reliance on cornball action montages and a dreadfully saccharine soudtrack score."*

## Production companies

* United Artists
* Meyers/Shyer