A SMILE LIKE YOURS

Similar to the Kevin Bacon comedy, SHE’S HAVING A BABY, A SMILE LIKE YOURS follows the arduous paths to parenthood taken by Jennifer Robertson (Lauren Holly), an entrepreneurial perfume-inventor, and her husband Danny (Greg Kinnear). Jennifer decides she MUST get pregnant, and so she begins concocting perfumes intended to increase Danny’s desire. She catches him in all sorts of awkward places such as work, sporting events and men’s rooms to seduce him into conjugal relations. Danny enjoys her eagerness, though he tells his business partner, Steve (Jay Thomas), that the longer it takes to get pregnant, the less he is convinced that they should add a baby to their happy marriage. Yet, Danny adores his wife, and one night, flushed with emotion, he tells Jennifer, “When we have a baby, promise me it will have a smile like yours.”

In the meantime, Jennifer’s aroma-therapist partner Nancy (Joan Cusack) hopes Jennifer’s aphrodisiac perfumes will help her lure a handsome mortician to the altar. Jennifer’s doctor says he needs to test Danny’s semen to see if that is where their conception efforts might be falling short. Simultaneously, Danny begins deceiving Jennifer by not mentioning that his new boss is a beautiful architect, Lindsay Hamilton (Jill Hennessy), who is trying hard to tempt him into taking a job under her, literally and figuratively, in Seattle.

Danny and Jennifer go to an expensive fertility clinic where they find out that Danny suffers from “lazy swimmers.” Jennifer endures several in vitro fertilization attempts that involve monstrously huge insertion tools. Somehow, through several contrived confusions, Danny comes to believe that Jennifer is having an affair with a perfume buyer, and Jennifer believes that Danny is having an affair with Lindsay Hamilton. The confusion gets sorted out in the remainder of the movie, allowing both to relax enough and wait until their blessed event.

While full of elements designed to make it a “romantic comedy” such as dazzling sunsets, lush musical score, lots of coy smiles, and warm physical affection, A SMILE LIKE YOURS actually moves well beyond romance and over into “conjugal comedy.” It is NOT a show for the whole family, even though the movie’s poster features a close-up of a laughing baby wearing sunglasses. Cute babies are not, however, the focus of the movie – making babies is, along with all the different approaches to achieving that end. The movie investigates a lot more approaches than children need or want to know.

In some ways, the movie is misleading for adults, too, making conception seem like either the most fun and inconsequential way to while away an afternoon, or like some humiliating Machiavellian procedure from a medieval torture dungeon.

Not only is the movie’s message unclear, but also its plot is incredible and its characters are shallow. Jennifer takes her desires for a baby to an unhealthy extreme. While being deeply cute and fuzzy, the adult romantic comedy, A SMILE LIKE YOURS is too contrived and lacking in substance to merit much attention from those who believe that each child conceived is a creation of a holy and all-wise God, and that He alone actually determines if and when a new soul is conceived. While the movie ends with a good point about marital commitment, much of the show pushes the imbalanced message that having babies is the most important thing a married couple can do.

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Sherry Lansing, Chairman, Motion Pictures Group

Paramount Pictures

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