Paternity

Sometimes HBO will air the most random movies. I just watched "Paternity" again. I saw it back in the day and loved it then and now.

The story of a middle aged successful single bachelor who feels eomthing is missing in his life. He decides he wants a baby, but not a wife or girlfriend...just a baby. He hooks up with Maggie (Diangelo) who is a waitress who also plays the french horn saving for a trip to Paris. He offers her money to be the surrogate (not quite as common then as it is today) and she accepts. During the months that they are together while she's carrying the baby it's obvious to see that they are destined to fall in love, but while it may be predictable it is just very sweet.

Great chemistry between buddy and maggie (reynolds and diangelo).

Paternity tells the story of a self centered man who just fall into a rout when he suddenly felt that he has no legacy in him. He decides to get a surrogate AND develops a relationship with a young musician who is in deep need of money for her music education.

I actually did like it until it tried to create a romantic narrative between the leads. There is little to no reason for it AND the separation anxiety being the main gist of the romance is just plain STUPID or her just letting him in after he goes out philandering for the giggles. They did not built it well enough chemistry between them to be honest AND some scenes where just long replay of earlier ones. From reading the trivia about this film, might have been affected by the fact SAG was under strike then lol.

Otherwise, this can also be viewed as a great travelogue into 70s New York. Beautiful shot within the river going through some famous spots in NYC lead by the creepy camp master in Sleepaway Camp.

Very Soft Recommendation.

PS: From reading the surrogacy wikipedia page, this was shockingly possible. Surrogacy during this period was only through artificial insemination or through natural sex. A Surrogacy Contract was only first drafted on 1975 AND IVF would only be publicly available by 1986, which kinda lines things up.

I was watching a marathon of National Lampoon vacation flix, and I instantly thought of this movie when I thought of Beverly D'Angelo. She's done many, many memorable movies over the years. Hair, the John Candy flick Summer Rental, and this one are standouts. Suburban Mom roles for Beverly. Odd, but she does it well.

This movie is all about Beverly, and Burt allows it. Which I think is very cool. Because she excels in the role. About as serious as an 80's RomCom can stand to be.

Burt Reynolds is in fine form in "Paternity". His supporting cast is very likeable. There are a bunch of laughs in this movie. I laughed out loud quite a few times. That said, there are more smiles than there are laughs in "Paternity". The movie has a lot of charm but, after a while, it begins to feel a little long. "Paternity" never goes completely south but the fun factor decreases quite a bit as they try to slide into the love story part of the movie. "Paternity" is a pretty easy watch. It's not that different than a lot of the other romantic comedies that came out around that time. (I first saw this movie in the theater (Bellerose, NY) when it first came out.

The bright spots in this movie are Elizabeth Ashley and New York City itself. They both photograph great. Burt is very natural and it is always good to see old pros like Juanita Moore & Norman Fell do their thing. Unfortunately Burt and Beverly have absolutely no chemistry what so ever. Beverly delivers her lines like she is reading them for the first time. Can't say anything about Lauren Huttin who I usually like because I missed the first 20 minutes and thats obviously when she was in it. That about sums up this typical 80's over produced movie. Burt plays a New York city bachelor who wants a kid but not a wife. Beverly plays the lucky gal who will have his baby for cash without any emotional strings attached. Do they fall in love? What do you think?