TIFF 2011: Friends with Kids

I loved this movie.

You should probably take that endorsement with a small grain of salt since I'm sure I'm pretty much in the sweet spot for the film target market wise. Also because proximity to Jon Hamm likely makes every experience better. But I loved this movie.

Friday night at Ryerson was the world premiere of Friends with Kids, a comedy written, directed and starring Jennifer Westfeldt and produced with her long time boyfriend Jon Hamm. It also stars about 50% of the cast of Bridesmaids (Hamm, Kirsten Wiig, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph), Adam Scott, Megan Fox and Edward Burns.

Westfeldt and Scott play Julie and Jason, long time best friends who witness the relationships and friendships of the friends around them change (mostly for the worse) as they have children. Eventually they make a decision to have a child together as friends in an attempt to avoid some of those pitfalls. This arrangement makes other romantic entanglements complicated (Ed Burns and Megan Fox play the love interests), friendships with the other couples in their lives awkward at times (O'Dowd/Rudolph and Wiig/Hamm play the other sets of couples) and, of course, their own relationship has to go through some changes as well.

It was funny. Laugh out loud funny. The whole cast was great, the script was pitch-perfect (I could so recognize moments from my own 'friends with kids' lives) and Westfeldt has done a great job with her directorial debut.

Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Adam Scott and Megan Fox attended and held a Q&A after the screening. Unlike last night's mess, no one rushed the stage and the questions were all pretty good (especially from the adorable 10 year old). Westfeldt talked about how the project started years ago when she wrote the first 70 pages of the script and then it sat in the drawer for years. She finished it last year and had a reading of it at their home and they filmed it over 25 days last winter. There were some funny stories about working with the children and simulated explosive diarrhea diaper changes. Westfeldt was charmingly nervous about the unveiling of her baby but by my account she had absolutely no need for nerves. The movie doesn't yet have distribution but I can't imagine her leaving TIFF without a deal. It should definitely be added to your list to see when it hits theatres.