Nine Months

Sam (Hugh Grant) has it all - a wonderful girlfriend, a successful child psychology practice and a red Porsche. But he's faced with having something he never wanted when he learns his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) is expecting. The news sends the unflappable psychologist into a panic. Torn between advise given by a well-meaning but over-bearing couple, (Tom Arnold and Joan Cusack), and by his confirmed bachelor buddy (Jeff Goldblum), Sam's in serious danger of losing his mind and his girlfriend. He's got just nine months - give or take a week, according to their crazy Russian gynecologist (Robin Williams) - to grow up!

This film represents Hugh Grant's first big bid at Hollywood stardom, on the heels of the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral. But he stumbled twice: first with this mundane comedy, then by being arrested after soliciting a prostitute near downtown Hollywood, the week before the film opened. Directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire), Nine Months was a weak reworking of a French film about an aging bachelor (Grant) who can't decide whether to commit to the woman he loves (Julianne Moore). When she becomes pregnant, he still can't make up his mind and winds up blowing hot and cold on the subject of fatherhood, which causes tension in the relationship. There's a lot of low comedy involving Grant's best friend; Tom Arnold plays this ultra-married and child-ridden suburbanite, who makes fatherhood look like a living hell. Robin Williams has a funny cameo as a foreign doctor, but in the end, the sentiment is ladled on and Grant doesn't have nearly enough funny material to work with. --Marshall Fine