Unexpected (2015)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The Worst Film Ever

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a feel good story about two pregnant women. Samantha (Cobie Smulders) is a white teacher at a predominantly African-American high school in Chicago. She becomes pregnant and gets married. She discovers that Jasmine (Gail Bean) who sports a 3.8 GPA is also pregnant. Samantha and Jasmine become friends as Samantha attempts to help her get into college in spite of her pregnancy. For some reason Samantha was unaware that her underprivileged students don't have the same values as herself. About an hour into the film, the student becomes the teacher, giving Samantha an epiphany.While the film discusses working mothers vs stay at home moms, I didn't see it as a real strong criticism for either one. There film was designed to show the contrasting lives of the two women.Guide: F-bomb. Brief sex? No nudity. Happy ending.

I'm surprised at the 5.5 rating for this film, as I found it to be filled with razor sharp dialogue that rang true to life, laced with humor but also raised some serious social issues, mainly the conflict families face with a newborn when they don't have long term maternity leave available.The most talented actress Cobie Smulders is excellent here as Samantha, a high school science teacher, in Chicago, who's working for a school scheduled to close at the end of the semester. She's been in a long term relationship with John (Anders Holm), when she unexpectedly discovers she's pregnant. They decide to quickly marry at the local courthouse, and you can see they have indeed a loving relationship.At the same time, one of Samantha's senior students, Jasmine, superbly portrayed by Gail Bean (an actress to watch in the future), finds out she's pregnant as well. This will subsequently bring Samantha and Jasmine closer together, and Samantha will try to help her student apply for college and hopefully build a more solid future.Initially, I thought things in the movie were perhaps too sugary sweet, but as it progressed there were conflicts that arose, and it all came down to a most poignant ending, in my opinion.All in all, I found this to be an exceptional indie, filled with most solid performances, good direction from Kris Swanberg, who also wrote the true-to-life script with Megan Mercier. It also raised some important social issues as well, without being too preachy.

This film has a lot of realism and is really well acted. Black girl and black community (so loud, so big) compared with white ones (so small, so unsteady) were the most interesting things to me, living so far from Illinois. But besides that I appreciated many details and even though I can't say that I enjoyed the film, Authors' talent is out of discussion.The story, however, was not catching and sometimes the two girls reminded me of two blind lemmings working their way through life, love and maternity. Simple things made complicated are not entertaining. And one thing lacks more than any other: fun. Real people make jokes, real people laugh: Sam and Jasmine? At best they smile...

Unexpected is a simple but powerful movie about the nature of female friendships, the dynamic of teacher and student relationships and how the same experience can be starkly different for women at two ends of the economic spectrum.Sam (Cobie Smulders) is a high school science teacher at an inner city school in Chicago that is in it's final semester before closing. As a result, Sam is looking to switch gears in her career but is thrown off course when she finds out she is pregnant. Soon after, one of her students, Jasmine (Gail Bean), also becomes pregnant, and the two develop an unlikely bond as they deal with this new stage of life together.Sam decides that it is her personal mission to help Jasmine get into a good college, despite her pregnancy. It's an easy chemistry between the two, but underneath you can feel the tension as Jasmine realizes she may not want to sacrifice time with her child to go to a four year school. Sam loses herself in trying to help and push Jasmine to be her best, and is so focused on that, that she is not getting her own life and mind ready for her personal foray into motherhood. This soon starts affecting her marriage, her relationship with her mother (Elizabeth McGovern), and her professional life.Smulders is perfect as Sam. Being pregnant herself during the shooting of the film, all of her insecurities about being a mother and bringing a life into this world while also striving to keep one's personal professional identity is portrayed wonderfully. Newcomer Gail Bean steals the show as the whip smart teen, Jasmine. Bean plays Jasmine with a beautiful strength and wisdom beyond her years, but she is also just a kid who is vulnerable and unsure of her next steps. Bean is a talent to watch, and here is hoping Hollywood will pay the proper attention.Unexpected is the rocky start to a beautiful friendship. Through their different situations and through their friendship, these two women find themselves wanting very different but equally good things for their babies. A delicate balance of understanding must be made for two such different people to be able to support each other in the ways they need.