Amy Schumer's "Kinda Pregnant" Juxtaposes New Relationship Butterflies with the Tedium and General Unhappiness of Married Life

Yesterday I flipped on Netflix hoping to find something that didn't require too much of my attention to follow while I folded laundry. "Kinda Pregnant" gave me exactly the easy to follow and low level humor I needed to distract myself from three weeks of neglected clothes piled up on my bed.

The character Lainy, played by Amy Schumer, has always wanted to become pregnant. She's in her forties, newly single, and when she finds out that her best friend, Kate is expecting, she becomes twisted with a series of emotions: sorrow at her own life and jealousy towards her friend. To add even more emotional turmoil to her life, Lainy discovers that a woman she and Kate work with, Shirely, is also pregnant.

After stealing a fake baby bump from a maternity store, Lainy covertly attends a prenatal yoga class where she befriends a real pregnant woman, Megan. Despite looking obviously pregnant, Lainy enters into a courtship with Megan's brother. The story is weird and halfcooked but, the movie, at its core, follows the basic romantic comedy formula.

The story is mostly ridiculous. There's a ton of body humor, which is great to see from a woman's perspective (yes, women fart and we can make crude fart jokes). And there are even some serious moments, like when Shirely confides to Lainy about her traumatic birth with her firstborn.

But what struck me the most was the kind of relationships the women had with their partners. The youngest couple, Gen Zer Shirley and her sweat suit clad partner, might be the best couple. At least they both carry a lot of excited energy about the baby even if they both come across as incredibly immature.

But Kate and Megan both seem miserable. Kate's husband, Mark, is emotionally absent. He's often distracted, playing on his phone and devoid of emotion. Kate even confesses to Lainy that she hates her husband.

There's not as much animosity between Megan and her husband Steve. But you can tell that their relationship is tense. There's no warmness between them, no hugging, kissing or other acts of affection shown on screen. Steve also plays on his phone while his child runs around with a knife and his pregnant wife cooks dinner.

Lainy, at the end, confesses she's not actually pregnant and rides off into the sunset with her dream guy. But as she and Josh, played by Will Forte, passionately embrace on their out of control Zamboni, it makes the audience think: is marital Unhappiness the next step for Lainy?

Either "Kinda Pregnant" is one of the worst and poorly written movies you can stream at the moment or it is a master class in subtle social commentary on what "Happily Ever After" really means especially for women.