2007, USA
Drama
READ THE REVIEW AT The Desert Sun.
Extended version:
Motherhood is a wondrous, life-altering event. One to be shared with family and friends — not your boss' girlfriend.
Writer-director Abe Levy's film, One of Our Own, focuses on a couple desperate to have a child, but they are exhausted mentally and financially after years of unproductive attempts.
Diane and Stellan (real-life couple Claire Rankin and Josh Randall from TV's "Ed") have nearly given up when fate walks into their lives in the form of professional surrogate, Cathy (Kate Beahan, The Wicker Man). No agencies, no forms and a much reduced fee convince them that Cathy has chosen her line of work in order to bring happiness to those who cannot manage it alone.
The only catch is that she prefers to become impregnated the old fashioned way. Diane is so excited at the prospect of finally becoming a mother that before Stellan can hesitate, she assures him that she is not the jealous type. Movie Foreshadowing 101 tells us that that is the first clue things will turn badly. Problem number one.
As a dedicated husband, Stellan does everything to make his wife happy; his boss, Bob, is a sleazy one-night-stander with little respect for women or indiscretion (Matthew Lillard doing nothing new). Which becomes problematic when he begins to date Cathy and discovers she is pregnant. Problem number two.
As the couple tries to keep their arrangement private, they demand that Cathy break off her relationship with Bob. After a successful attempt, Diane and Stellan celebrate their future family, and Diane soon begins to have her own bouts of morning sickness. Problem number three.
Levy tackles the very complicated emotional side of this biological event. When first asked about her relationships with previous couples following the births, Cathy pauses slightly to imply there may be something unsaid. The story, however, follows an unpredictable path. As obsessed as Diane is with having a baby, nothing compares to having the baby born from her own body, despite the fact that both are equally Stellan's. She becomes cold and calculating in her endeavor to achieve the ideal family, no matter the lifelong effect on those around her. When everything finally goes right, so much can still go wrong.