Film

The Baby Maker

Name: The Baby Maker
Genre: Drama
Released: 1970
Cast: Barbara Hershey, Collin Wilcox Paxton, Sam Groom, Scott Glenn, Jeannie Berlin

Drama

A 1970 drama about a woman hired to conceive and carry a baby for an infertile couple, exploring what happens when an impersonal arrangement collides with genuine human connection. It's a quietly searching film about obligation, desire, and whether intimacy can be cordoned off. For anyone interested in how cinema handled reproductive ethics before they became political flashpoints.

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Immediate Family1989

A couple unable to conceive arranges an open adoption with a pregnant teenager, and the film tenderly explores how three people's needs and hopes reshape each other across the pregnancy.

But It's earnest and measured in ways that can feel slow if you're expecting drama to come from conflict rather than quiet moral reckoning.

Never Let Me Go2010

Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield navigate a relationship shadowed by an impossible future, asking what we owe each other when the body is the site of obligation. Haunting and careful.

But The science-fiction premise is secondary to the emotional tone; if you need plot momentum, this will feel like watching people drift.

The Surrogate2021

A surrogate mother and an older gay couple form an unlikely family across one pregnancy, negotiating love and contract with surprising humour and grace. Genuinely warm without being sentimental.

But It's a smaller, quieter film than its premise suggests. The drama is internal, not external.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Baby Maker

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Citizen Ruth1996

Both films see pregnancy as a site where personal autonomy and external demand collide. Ruth is *The Baby Maker* turned inside out — what if everyone with a stake in your body is suddenly your enemy rather than a grieving couple?

Alexander Payne's debut uses a woman's unplanned pregnancy as the fulcrum for a savage satire of abortion politics and how much we instrumentalise women's bodies in service of ideology. Darkly funny and impossible to forget.

But It's deliberately provocative about a subject people feel strongly about, and the comedy comes from discomfort rather than warmth.

Ordinary People1980

Robert Redmond's direction of grief and fractured family bonds after tragedy. A masterclass in how interior emotional damage shows itself through the smallest gestures and silences.

But It's a film about people failing to communicate with each other, so long stretches can feel difficult and cold.

Terms of Endearment1983

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger's relationship spans decades and crisis. It moves between comedy and genuine pain in ways that feel earned rather than manipulative.

But The tonal shifts can feel abrupt. Some moments are played for laughs in ways that jar against the heavier material.

A Place in the World2020

A pregnant refugee woman finds shelter with an older couple, and the film explores how strangers become family, and what we risk when we let someone in. Quietly powerful.

But It's a slow European drama with subtitles, and the pacing asks patience rather than delivering catharsis.

Steel Magnolias1989

Six women's friendship is tested by pregnancy, marriage, and mortality. It balances genuine humour with real stakes in a way that few ensemble dramas manage.

But It veers toward melodrama in the final act, and the sentimentality may feel calculated if you're resistant to it.

The Kids Are All Right2010

Two lesbian mothers, their teenage children, and the sperm donor they've tracked down collide in ways that are funny, tender, and deeply messy. Family as negotiation, not destiny.

But The central conflict relies on adult infidelity, which some find more frustrating than illuminating.

Rachel Getting Married2008

Anne Hathaway as a woman returning from rehab to her sister's wedding, trying to rebuild trust and belonging. Raw, improvised-feeling, genuinely difficult to watch in the best way.

But The handheld camera and naturalistic style can feel claustrophobic, and there's no neat resolution to the family damage.

Motherhood2009

Where *The Baby Maker* imagines pregnancy as transaction, this asks what happens when a woman chooses it entirely for herself — and discovers choice is never that simple.

Minnie Driver spent one day in 2002 deciding whether to become a single mother by choice, and this documentary (made with her permission) follows the actual consequences. Bracingly honest about the gap between desire and reality.

But It's not a drama, so there's no narrative arc. If you need traditional storytelling, this is just a woman thinking aloud. Also sometimes crushingly sad.