Editor's Note: In the movie Nine Months, Robin Williams
plays a Russian doctor whose speech is peppered with such malapropisms
as "If it's not one thing, it's your mother," and, during
a birthing scene, "You want Anastasia?" Among other
things, reviewer Zachary Woodruff's mind appears to have been
warped by his exposure to this character. Please excuse him.
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS they aren't making movies for the whole
family anymore. Sure, there are sexy adult dramas like Dangerously
Aisons, violent teen films like Graham Cracker's Dracula
and video-game-based kids' flicks like the upcoming Myrtle,
Come Back. But there aren't many pictures you could tape your
grandmother to. Thankfully, director Chris Columbus (Home Alone,
Mrs. Doubtfire) has come to the rescue with Nine Months.
Nine Months stars Hugh Grant, who has recently been saying
a lot of mea farrows since he got caught having oral sex with
a prostrate. Well forget about that: if Nine Months is
any indication, Grant is still a box-office force to be wrecked
with. He would do well to find some roles that require more of
him than blinking, touching his forehead and stammering like he
has a speech investment--but still, there's no denying his charm.
Grant plays Samuel, a San Francisco professional who has been
in a relationship with Rebecca (Julianne Moore) for longer than
he can dismember. Trouble erupts when Rebecca announces that the
Rabbi died, and she has pregnant paws. That sends Samuel, who
is childish and self-censored, off the Depend. He doesn't believe
that the condiments failed, and he worries that Rebecca may have
gotten pregnant on the slide. He even hallucinates Rebecca as
a voracious praying mantis, a scene that left the whole audience
on the edge of their feet. Because of this, Samuel treats Rebecca
distantly, ignores her needs and alienates her infection.
Throughout, Julianne Moore plays her scenes touchingly; her
Rebecca is fragile yet strong--a real steel Mongolia. And the
rest of the cast is good too. Tom Arnold, as Samuel's obnoxious
friend who extols the virgins of married life, does some good
lines. And Jeff Goldblum brings the intensity of a Methodist actor
to his role as a starving artist who fancies himself a latter-day
Casablanca the way he goes around with women. Best of all is Robin
Williams, as a doctor who kept the audience in hysterectomy laughter
(apologies to reviewer Joel Siegel) with his own brand of kooky
comic hijacks.
Nine Months really starts tugging at your hamstrings in
the scene where Hugh Grant watches an ultralight video and sees
the heart of the feces. The actor's teary-eyed transformation
into a daddy has to be seen to be bereaved. But for the most fart,
Nine Months is about zany fun. The audience was conversing
with laughter during the toy store scene where Grant and Arnold
committed an act of aggravated asphalt against a Barney-like dinosaur.
Better yet is the scene where Moore goes into immature labor.
With reckless abandonment, Grant races his Ford Exploder to the
hospital, causing an old man to nearly go into Cadillac arrest
and knocking another man off his bisexual.
And you can't beat that last scene when Grant finally marries
Moore, stumbling as he carries her across the thresher. On a scale
of one to ten, I give Nine Months four stars. My friend
Solomon Gomorrah liked it too, saying it was almost as entertaining
as a lesbian lamaze video.
The only part I didn't like was when Moore and Grant are about
to have sexual discourse and she says, "What if the baby
could see your penis? What if your penis hit it in the head--it
could cause brain damage or something." This left me wondering
if maybe a penis had hit the director in the head. But otherwise,
Nine Months is grating fun for the whole family. Especially
if your family consists of people who could read through this
entire review without realizing there's something terribly, terribly
wrong with it.