Nine Months *** (1995, Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore) – Classic Movie Review 1575

Writer-director Chris Columbus’s interesting if uneasy 1995 comedy is based on the 1994 French hit Neuf Mois, written by Patrick Braoudé.

Hugh Grant stars as Samuel Faulkner, a commitment-phobic man who fears that his idyllic five-year relationship is about to change for the worse when his partner Rebecca Taylor (Julianne Moore) becomes pregnant. He just doesn’t want to have kids. But things get a lot worse for Samuel when he becomes involved with a couple of well-meaning but overbearing parents (Joan Cusack and Tom Arnold).

A lot was expected of Grant’s first big American movie and the result is slick and professional, though on the mechanical side, and must be judged a slight disappointment. Still, there are pleasures to be found in the story and in Grant’s affable performance as a father-to-be who fears a future of nappies and baby sick.

Moore, Cusack and Arnold and Jeff Goldblum give our Hugh the support he needs to look shiny. But Robin Williams shows everyone how to be truly funny as Dr Kosevich, a Russian obstetrician whose previous experience has only been with animals!

Three of the director’s kids appear: Eleanor Columbus plays a little girl in ballet class, Brendan Columbus plays a little boy on the beach and Violet Columbus is the baby in the toy store.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1575

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