Step aside Never Rarely Sometimes Always, the sombre story of a 17 year old who travels across the US to get an abortion has been remodelled into a vivaciously comedic coming-of-age story.
Veronica (Hayley Lu Richardson) is a prim and proper overachiever who has every aspect of her life planned out to the millisecond, that is until she finds out she is pregnant in her Missouri high school bathroom and the only person in the room is her ex best friend, badass punk Bailey Butler (Barbie Ferreira). Hoping to keep her pregnancy a secret from both her religious family and peers alike, the girls embark on a 2000 mile round trip to Alberqueue, New Mexico AKA the nearest state that will allow a young person to receive an abortion without parental consent.
What follows, is an exciting, often chaotic adventure that sees the girl’s reacquaint with one another. There are traces of Olivia Wilde’s hit high school comedy Booksmart throughout Unpregnant but throughout it carries its own witty charm. The girls’ road trip is by no means boring, there are so many twists and turns that become stranger and wackier as the film goes on. The subplot – perhaps my favourite bit in this entire movie involves a couple of oddly sweet prolifers (Sugar Lyn Beard and Breckin Meyer) whose characters are so over the top that they’re believable. The storyline involving them also involves a direct homage to the iconic car chase in ‘Thelma & Louise’.
Together, the two young women represent what it is like to be a young feminist who move with lucidity even when they’re running from a camper van with a four-foot cutout of a toddler pasted to the front bumper. The girls’ belt out the words to Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’ and it’s a feel good moment everyone can enjoy no matter what.
The film occasionally puts a hold on the laughing and joking to pause and allow the audience to take in a few minutes of practical information, including a step-by-step breakdown of what Veronica can expect if/when the twosome reach Albuquerque: “I’ll walk you through the whole process,” says a nurse, as a gentle, noodling song slides into the score and the camera transitions from soft focus shots of syringes to a POV shot of an anaesthesiologists’ mask that makes the whole world go calm and blurry. Unpregnant is a film that advocates loudest for allowing young women the space to make their own choices — and that they have friends, long-time or newfound, willing to help when they stumble. The film is available to stream on HBO Max now