Film

Friends with Kids

A romantic comedy about two best friends who decide to have a child together without being a couple, splitting parenting duties so they can keep their social lives intact. It's warm and funny, anchored by genuine chemistry and the kind of conversations that real people actually have. For anyone who's wondered if friendship and desire can coexist.

TMDb rating3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like smart, talky comedies where sensible-sounding plans keep collapsing, and a warm ensemble that captures the awkward timing of real friendships wins you over.

Skip it if the tone keeps swinging between raunchy gags and earnest heart-to-hearts, so if you want one register throughout, the shifts may feel bumpy.

What it asks of you: Roughly a hundred minutes of quick, dialogue-heavy scenes with feelings arriving quietly between the jokes, so it rewards paying attention to who says what.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

When Harry Met Sally...1989

The template for everything this film is doing: two people circling each other for ninety minutes, arguing philosophy in diners, building intimacy through talk. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal make you believe that friendship and romance are not opposites.

But It's a 1980s film with 1980s pacing and a very specific vision of what romantic resolution looks like. If you want something faster, this will feel slow.

When Harry Met Sally... poster

Forgetting Sarah Marshall2008

Same warmth and comedy sensibility, but looser and messier. It understands that grief and joy happen at the same time, and that your friends are your real family. Jason Segel and Kristen Bell have the kind of easy rapport this film needs.

But It's broader and rowdier than Friends with Kids. If you're after something more grounded, this tips toward raunch.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall poster

The Mindy Project2012

Mindy Kaling writes characters who want things and bungle things in recognizable ways. It's about a woman figuring out what she actually wants—career, romance, both, neither—without pretending the answer is simple or stable.

But The early seasons are uneven and the tone wobbles. It takes a while to settle into what it's trying to be.

The Mindy Project poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Friends with Kids

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

High Fidelity2000

Both films are about people who overthink love and choice, using friendship as a lens to understand what they actually want, rather than what they think they're supposed to want.

John Cusack narrates his own romantic failures while working in a record store, turning the entire film into an interrogation of why we want what we want. Like Friends with Kids, it's structured around the question: what if we chose differently?

But It's a 2000 indie romantic comedy that believes men thinking hard about their feelings is interesting enough to carry a film. Your patience for Cusack's melancholy will determine whether you're charmed or bored.

High Fidelity poster
More like this (8)

Sleeping with the Enemy1991

A sharp reversal: Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin play people who look compatible but aren't, forcing you to think about what compatibility actually means. It's smarter than it first appears.

But It pivots into thriller territory in the second half. If you want pure romance, the tonal shift will feel jarring.

Sleeping with the Enemy poster

Bridesmaids2011

Kristen Wiig—who's in Friends with Kids—carries this film. It's about female friendships as the real love story, shot through with both genuine belly laughs and real pain. A masterclass in comedy and character work.

But It's broad and deeply embarrassing in places. The famous airplane scene will either delight you or make you want to disappear into your seat.

Bridesmaids poster

You've Got Mail1998

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan play people who become close before they know who each other really are. It's about identity and reinvention, dressed up in Christmas lights and coffee shops. Comfort food that genuinely satisfies.

But It's openly nostalgic for a version of New York and romance that the film itself is already mourning. That can read as precious.

You've Got Mail poster

Love Actually2003

Judd Apatow film about a couple breaking up and making up, told in non-linear time. It has real stakes and real bitterness alongside the comedy. You feel the weight of what these people are losing.

But It's seventy minutes and deliberately small. If you want plot momentum or resolution, you'll be frustrated.

Love Actually poster

The Good Place2016

Not about romance at all, but about people figuring out how to be good to each other. It has the same philosophy-in-diners energy as When Harry Met Sally, but it's about morality and friendship instead of dating.

But It gets increasingly weird and metaphysical. If you want grounded comedy, it eventually leaves the ground.

The Good Place poster

Someone Great2019

A road movie about female friendship that takes its relationships seriously. It's silly and heartfelt in the same breath, and it understands that love comes in shapes other than romantic.

But It's a Netflix film that sometimes feels like one. The emotional beats can feel a little prescribed and neat.

Someone Great poster

The Letdown2017

Both examine the gap between what we imagine parenthood will be like and what it actually is—the film through the lens of romance, the series through the lens of identity and survival.

An Australian series about new motherhood that is darkly, violently funny. It doesn't pretend parenthood is magical. It shows you the exhaustion, the resentment, the way having a child fractures your sense of self, and somehow makes you love the parent-child bond more honestly.

But It's Australian and the humor is dry and often uncomfortable. If you're looking for reassurance about parenthood, this will not provide it.

The Letdown poster

Phantom Thread2017

Like Friends with Kids, it's about whether love and partnership can exist outside of the expected form—here, not marriage or romance as convention usually frames it, but as something stranger and more particular.

Paul Thomas Anderson's film about a dressmaker and his muse, shot like a love story but structured like a negotiation. Two people trying to fit together, succeeding in ways they never expected. It's beautiful and strange and entirely about people choosing each other, daily.

But It's slow, formal, and operates at a temperature close to cold. There's almost no plot. If you need the film to move toward you, this will not.

Phantom Thread poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

The Wedding Year