''Unexpected'' is a 2015 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Kris Swanberg Kris Swanberg (born Kristin Williams, November 11, 1980) is an American businesswoman, filmmaker, actress and former high school teacher living in Chicago, Illinois. She has been credited at various times as Kris Williams, Kris Swanberg and Kris ...

, and co-written by Swanberg and Megan Mercier. It stars

Cobie Smulders Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders (born April 3, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring role as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014) and as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in the Ma ...

as a teacher at an inner city Chicago high school who unintentionally becomes pregnant. One of her students, Jasmine (

Gail Bean Gail Mitchell, known professionally as Gail Bean, is an American actress. Bean co-starred in the series ''Paradise Lost (2020 TV series), Paradise Lost'' and the film ''Unexpected (2015 film), Unexpected''. She has also acted in ''Insecure (TV se ...

), is also unexpectedly pregnant, and the two bond through planning their futures. The film had its world premiere at the

2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. '' What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film '' Grandma'', directed by ...

on January 25, 2015. The film was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

and released

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on July 24, 2015, by The Film Arcade.

Premise

An inner-city high school teacher develops an unlikely friendship with one of her most promising students while both struggle to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.

Cast

as Samantha Abbott *

as Jasmine *

Anders Holm Anders Christian Holm (born May 29, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is one of the stars and creators of the Comedy Central show '' Workaholics'' and starred in the short-lived NBC series ''Champions''. He, along wi ...

as John * Elizabeth McGovern as Mrs. Abbott, Samantha's mother

Production

Swanberg took about two years to write the film's script. The film was shot in West Humboldt Park and

East Garfield Park, Chicago East Garfield Park is on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, west of the Loop. Taking its name from the large urban park, Garfield Park, the neighborhood is bordered by Franklin Boulevard on the north, Arthington and Taylor Streets on the sout ...

, but takes place in Englewood. Cobie Smulders was pregnant during filming. The coinciding of Smulders' pregnancy with that of her character was not intentional. The film was completed in October 2014.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on January 25, 2015. Shortly after it was announced, The Film Arcade had acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on July 24, 2015, in a

, and through

Reception

''Unexpected'' was met with positive reviews. Film

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gives the film a 67% score, with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on reviews from 54 critics. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Unexpected'' proves a thoughtful and well-acted — if somewhat mild — look at worthy, thought-provoking themes. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a weighted average rating of 65 out of 100, sampled from 20 film critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 4145304 2015 films American drama films American independent films 2015 drama films American pregnancy films Teenage pregnancy in film The Film Arcade films Films scored by Keegan DeWitt 2015 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language drama films