Maya Rudolph co-stars with Westfeldt as an unhappy married mom. Filmmaker Jennifer Westfeldt is questioning the way marriage and parenthood are codified in our society. She plays Julie, who decides to conceive a child with her best friend, Jason Adam Scott โ no strings attached.
And who could blame them? The couple, who have been together for 15 years, do not have children โ and have watched as their friends who do drift off into the parental netherworld. They do bond with people who are in the same situation. Unlike the onscreen couple, she and Hamm โ with whom she was friends for nearly a year before they started dating โ have yet to take the plunge. Or how that will happen, if it does.
Obviously, there are a lot of ways to do that. Julie and Jason also have a fundamentally different and somewhat modern view of family, she says. Their quarrel over the unorthodox pregnancy runs on long enough to make audiences squirm.
I think [screenwriting guru] Robert McKee would probably put me in jail for it. But Adam and Jon are so great squaring off in that moment โ I think they really sold it. Speaking of friends as family, she and Hamm who produced were thrilled to be working in such a tight-knit group. It had to be something visceral and physical to make an impact. Otherwise it would feel like settling. Roger Harvey โ Globe Photos, Inc.
