'Babes' delivers a sweetly gross comedy about motherhood

Ilana Glazer stars and co-writes in a movie with humor, heart and plenty of fluids

Just like “Bridesmaids” was a raunchy comedy about weddings that was really a comedy about female friendship, “Babes” is a raunchy comedy about pregnancy that’s really a comedy about female friendship.

The difference is that Paul Feig added gross out gags and raunchy humor to his 2011 classic. “Babes” works backwards, stripping away the gauzy Katie Britt-rebuttal-speech artifice that surrounds parenting and motherhood in American society, presenting it as the beautiful, disgusting and intense thing that it is.

In the very funny opening scene, New Yorkers and best friends Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) meet for their traditional Thanksgiving Day movie, even though Dawn is on the precipice of giving birth to her second child. 

Her water breaks before the previews are even over. But it’s more of a trickle than a flood, so the friends decide they’ve got time to treat themselves to a little pre-natal brunch on the way to the hospital. Bad decision. Buteau is a marvelous physical comedian as Dawn goes into full labor in the middle of a tony Manhattan restaurant, crawling around the carpet in agony, immune to the shocked expressions of the other diners.

They make it to the hospital, and the delivery goes smoothly. (One funny detail is the way the nurse code-switches between making goo-goo noises at the baby and talking harshly to the mother.) On the subway ride home, Eden has a meet-cute with a handsome actor (Stephan James), and the pair spend a sweet night together. 

A month later, Eden’s pregnancy test comes back positive, but the actor seems to have ghosted her. Eden determines that she’ll join the mommy club and have the baby, raising it on her own. 

(Photos courtesy of NEON)

Much of “Babes” smartly balances the two women’s experiences. Eden deals with the harsh realities of being pregnant while Dawn deals with the harsh realities of being a working mom with a baby and a toddler at home. The film revels in the comic indignities of both experiences – the mystery pains, the doctor’s visits, the clueless reactions from others. And the fluids. So many fluids.

On balance, I think the Dawn storyline works better, because Buteau finds the comedy and the pathos in Dawn’s struggles to juggle everything going on in her life. Next to her travails, Eden just seems like a little bit of a precious pill for complaining that Dawn isn’t around enough to help her on her pregnancy journey, which includes planning for a “prom”-themed delivery.

The second act (trimester?) of “Babes,” honestly, feels like a collection of disjointed comedic bits, ping-ponging back and forth between the two women. Glazer co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Rabinowitz, and while “Babes” has many funny lines, sometimes as an actress she puts a little too much sauce on them, like she’s thinking, “Man, this joke’s going to kill.”

But Adlon, the actor-turned-director who balanced comedy and drama beautifully on her show “Better Things,” finds her footing in the third act when things turn a little more emotional. There’s a beautifully-done scene where Eden’s largely-absent father (the wonderful Oliver Platt) resurfaces briefly, wanting to connect but only on his terms. 

And the finale repairs the friendship in a very moving way, and refocuses the movie where it began – not on the babies, but on the women. Childbirth is a miracle, the film says, but not necessarily one that should replace the other miracles in your life.

“Babes” is now playing in a few major cities, and will open everywhere on Friday. In Madison, it will open at Marcus Point, Marcus Palace and AMC Fitchburg 18.