Diamonds in the Rough

Knocked Up is another movie that I loved, but I can't whole-heartedly endorse. As you could expect from the makers of The 40 Year Old Virgin, there's a fair amount of trash in this movie (most of it is still admittedly funny). But, the messages in this movie are really incredible and positive and it turned out to be one of the most challenging and positive commitment- and marriage-oriented movies I've seen come out of Hollywood in a while.

Obviously, I'm not unmarried and pregnant, so I couldn't necessarily relate to that aspect of the movie. But, the approach (as far as the pregnancy) they take in this movie is against the typical Hollywood norm: she keeps the baby! They are two totally different people with different personalities and lifestyles, but they decide to learn how to make things work. They don't just up and get married to cover things up (which I think is sometimes another mistake), but they give their relationship an honest attempt, and it's neat to see. There are some doozie fights between them, but they make a conscious effort to be honest with each other -- more than lots of us can say about our relationships, even after years of marriage.

Also, we learn lots from the marriage of the main character's sister and her husband. They're also going through rough times around the 10-year mark of marriage. My favorite part is when the husband (played by Paul Rudd) says that all of his fights with his wife are because she loves him so much that she wants to spend all her time with him and he can't believe he's fighting with her about that -- he should be thankful! I thought that was pretty profound. We do need to give each other space, though, too ... so finding that balance can be really hard.

I know you're all shocked because I seem to like everything, but this was a great movie, too. I'd actually like to see it again. The relationships were accurately portrayed as hard work, but so worth it.

Here's another interesting review (thanks to Instapundit.com for the link).