This was another one that Lisa and I watched several times during the later years in our infertility journey and always found some comfort in the very accurate portrayals of the infertility experience.
Greg Kinnear does a great job of conveying the emotion of finding out his contribution to the baby making game is not cutting it, and there is a montage of sperm sample scenes that shows him going from the shy humiliation of the early process, to the Johnny on the spot orgasm producer most men become after a half or dozen or so cycles.
It does give the Hollywood cliche version of the masturbatorium–was more like a video store than anything I ever experienced in my 4 x 4 foot sample providing atmospheres at public health clinics in the early years.
Lauren Holly is convincing as she shows the change from early happy go lucky it’s fun going at it like rabbits like this, to the horror of the different equipment the reproductive doctors use on her nether regions to inject the magic combo of child producing biology.
The movie strays off course with the subplots with Holly’s business developments and Kinnear’s female boss makes obvious attempts to seduce him away from all of his infertility woes, which results in a predictable misunderstanding when Holly walks in at the worst possible time.
Overall, though, the couple is stronger and more in love for having gone through the whole experience.
The soundtrack is a lot of fun, and we would rate it a 8 for infertility safety and soundness and accuracy of showing the infertility experience. It doesn’t run deep into anything resembling Oscar award winning performances, but it is fun and heartfelt and honest.
No surprise pregnancies by friends or family members of the main characters, and a focus on how the couples cope with each new challenge during their infertility rang true with us on the ‘fits in with the real life experience’ meter.
A Smile Like Yours, is likely to put a smile on your face, regardless of where you are in the infertility experience.