First Year Father
With her boyfriend, John (Drew Seeley - Another Cinderella Story), due to leave for Harvard University, Kathy (Britt Irvin - Absolute Zero) fears she is going to lose him. So when Kathy becomes pregnant he does the honourable thing and marries her, and arranging for accommodation at Harvard as a married couple. And at first being young and married with a baby on the way is fun but with the pressure of studies and Kathy struggling with nothing to do the cracks start to show, which worsen when having given birth to their son she is unable to cope. When it all gets too much for her Kathy leaves John with their son, adding even more pressure on him as he juggles his studies and being a dad as well as having to move out of the married couples accommodation.
I'm having a bit of a Murtaugh moment because as I watched "Freshman Father" I felt like I was too old for this stuff. In fairness the storyline to "Freshman Father" is decent and is in fact based on a true story of a Harvard freshman who was left holding the baby when his wife left them. But the way this movie handles the story is a little too pleasant and a little too soft which means the realism of a young father's struggles does not come across in a believable way. Instead it is more of an easy to watch uplifting drama of success over adversity.
In truth there is actually a lot to like in "Freshman Father" especially when it gets to the point that Kathy leaves as she can't cope with not only a young baby but being stuck in the apartment with nothing to do. That is where the movie grows up as John suddenly has to deal with various issues from having to relinquish his married couple's accommodation to his continual battle to get to grips with part of his studies. There are still things wrong with the movie, characters are a little too nice and the realism is missing but it undeniably has an uplifting quality about it as John refuses to be beaten by his circumstances.
Unfortunately the first half of "Freshman Father" is where it struggles as it desperately tries to appeal to a younger audience, playing on the cuteness of the young couple and the overly patient John. Maybe this works for some because Kathy and John are nice and all the characters have a nice edge to them especially when John moves in to the spare room of an amusingly quirky psychic, played with so much warmth by Annie Potts. In fact I am sure some will love it especially in the humorous way John has to deal with things such as taking his baby with him to a test and gets support from some nice teachers. But needless to say real life is certainly not as simple, as amusing or as full of nice people as shown in "Freshman Father".
What this all boils down to is that "Freshman Father" is entertaining, it is cute and it is a little uplifting. But it is also a movie which has turned a true story into something which at times borders on the cheesy by being too nice with overly nice characters and choosing to avoid reality as well as the grittiness of life.
