Warning: Spoilers for Look Both Ways ahead.
A feel-good pregnancy drama? In this socio-political climate? What could possibly go wrong? In Look Both Ways, Netflix’s Sliding Doors–esque film that premiered on August 17, nothing actually goes wrong…and that’s kind of the problem.
Lili Reinhart stars as Natalie, an aspiring illustrator and animator whose pregnancy scare leads her on two divergent paths. We watch as the parallel versions of Natalie—the one who gets pregnant after a one-night stand on the eve of her college graduation, and the one who does not—live out their lives simultaneously in two separate universes.
Felicia Graham/Netflix
The premise seemed full of promise at first: A young woman is tasked with making a decision about her body, her career, and every other aspect of her future—there’s so much potential for a raw and sympathetic portrayal of what leads to her decision to continue to the pregnancy, even if it means putting her plans on hold. So I was shocked when, not 10 minutes into the movie, pregnant Natalie says with zero explanation that she’s decided to ditch her dream—and her best friend and roommate, Cara (Aisha Dee)—of moving to Los Angeles to work in animation studio, and instead raise a child as a single parent.
The ambitious narrative spans roughly five years of each of Natalie’s lives—which is admittedly a lot of ground to cover in 111 minutes. But the omission of any kind of motivation for becoming a mother at 22 is an oversight that feels, sadly, like a bid for neutrality rather than a time-saving strategy. And neutrality, especially from a star as outspoken as Reinhart, who also served as an executive producer on the project, is not what we need right now. At a time when women in America—and especially Texas, where Natalie is living when she becomes pregnant—are being denied the very right to such a decision, the plot seems tone-deaf at best.