The couple are exaggerated in their ineptitude by their wardrobe and actions; Dot is the "trailer trashy" woman, and her equally trailer-trashy, beer guzzling husband, Glen, who ignores his own child, as does Dot, and the child runs wild. These behaviors and the scene is one that many young parents who have a better command and control over their lives and children can relate to. In this parody comedy, it is amusing and helps deflect the reality of the experience of real life, but it is nonetheless one which is easy to relate to having had.
As often is the case, art mirrors life and we find that once children arrive, life changes for couples in ways in which they perhaps never anticipated. Suddenly, Dot and Glen are not the best company for the McDonnoughs; first, because they have kidnapped a child, and, secondly, because the couple are out of control and are not Edwina and H.I.'s vision of ideal parenting. This is now a matter of importance, where it once was not.
However, H.I. And Edwina have piqued the curiosity of Dot and Glen as to the new addition to the McDonnough...
Dot and Glen are suspicious, but it catches on quicker for Dot than it does for Glen.
The director keeps the film and the storyline moving at a pace that does not lose the viewer as far as keeping track of what is going on, but does not lose the viewer's attention. The action begins to pick up after the kidnapping, and especially when H.I., who has become confused and challenged by the changes in his life, resorts to
crime and pulls a
robbery at a convenience store while Edwina and the baby wait in the
car for H.I., who has gone inside to buy diapers.
The film is a parody of the emotional ups and down of new parents, of the anxiousness of the career woman's concern over having children as her biological clock counts down. It is a drawing together of the experiences, and putting them cleverly together in a romantic comedy.
