Baby Boom (1987)

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Baby Boom" tells the story of a yuppie who receives the ultimate toy, a cute little baby daughter. At first she doesn't want to play with it, but eventually the baby grows on her...This story could have been told as a satire, but the filmmakers aren't quite sure. They see a lot of humor in the yuppie's lifestyle, but they love the baby so much that the movie finally turns into a sweet romance. I guess that's all right. It sure is a cute baby...The film is careful never to confront the Keaton character with any of the real messiness of the world, such as poverty, illness and catastrophe. After she quits her job, she has enough money in the bank to buy a country spread in Vermont for herself and baby Elizabeth. And when the money runs low, she starts a gourmet baby-good company that is worth millions within a few months...She also discovers companionship up there in the woods, with Sam Shepard, the local vet and only person under 60 in the surrounding area...All of this is too good to be true, of course, but that's why I enjoyed it. "Baby Boom" makes no effort to show us real life. It is a fantasy about mothers and babies and sweetness and love, with just enough wicked comedy to give it an edge. The screenplay, written by producer Nancy Meyers and director Charles Shyer, has some of the same literate charm as their previous film, "Irreconcilable Differences," and some of the same sly observation of a generation that wages an interior war between selfishness and good nature...The flaw in "Baby Boom" is that the Keaton character ends up not having sacrificed a single thing by leaving the business world to become a mom. In fact, she becomes a millionaire as a direct result of keeping the baby. It doesn't often happen that way, but of course it should. Like a Frank Capra film, "Baby Boom" shows us a little of the darkness and a lot of the dawn. - Roger Ebert
 
Apollo Movie Guide 7 of 10
It's almost quaint, that yuppie feminism-light vibe that Baby Boom works so hard to give off. There's a certain satisfaction that comes from seeing the trite Workaholic Learns That Family Is Really Important plot presented with a female protagonist for a change. And it's amusing watching the writer/director team of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer create a rather in-the-moment send up of '80s materialism and parental over-compensation. But really, wouldn't anyone watching it today consider its particular retro you-go-girl message faintly insulting, at best?...I suppose it's important not to overanalyze a trifle like Baby Boom, particularly with its rare opportunity to enjoy Diane Keaton's sparkling comic talents. Keaton plays J.C. Wiatt, a hot-shot at a New York management consulting firm on the fast-track to partnership. But at just the wrong time in her life, she learns that she's "inherited" an infant named Elizabeth from a distant cousin who died in an accident. At first, J.C. is ready to hand the child over for adoption, but soon she decides that she can have it all, even if the "all" isn't exactly what she originally had in mind...Not surprisingly, the first half of Baby Boom mines most of its humour from incompetence and incongruity -- the befuddled J.C. strapping on a diaper with duct tape, or a meeting interrupted by J.C. singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" for Elizabeth over the phone. Whenever those gags fail, there's always a cutaway to the adorable child's face to win back the audience's favour, and Shyer cuts away so often you'd suspect he was a nervous parent himself checking up on the child's well-being...There's more formula to Baby Boom than there is in Elizabeth's bottle, but it gets a tremendous surge of energy from Keaton's performance...Just close your eyes, ignore how dated it feels and bond with a winning performance. Sometimes you can't have it all, and it's okay to appreciate what you do get. - Scott Renshaw