Film Review: Baby Ruby (2022)

Rate This Movie

SYNOPSIS:

Written and Directed by Bess Wohl
Starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington

BABY RUBY tells the story of Jo, a successful lifestyle entrepreneur who is happily pregnant, awaiting the arrival of her first child. But soon after Jo welcomes baby Ruby home, something starts to feel off– even though she’s assured it’s all perfectly normal. Is something wrong with her? Is something wrong with Ruby? And why are the seemingly perfect neighborhood moms so desperate to befriend her? As Jo fights to protect herself and her baby, she is plunged into a waking fever dream where everyone is a threat and nothing is what it seems. At last, she must confront the truth of her own darkness and contend with the ultimate human sacrifice: The one mothers make for their children.

REVIEW:

Directed and written by Bess Wohl.

Kit Harington portrays Spencer, and Noemie Merlant is Jo. She’s an influencer and soon to be mom. Jo’s a perfectionist, and she’s even planning her own baby shower to welcome baby Ruby. Caroline (Camila Cano-Flavia) is working with Jo. Jo heads to her blog after planning her baby shower, she is happy to see the “Likes”. It’s kind of sad because the comment that Caroline makes about how they would all hate Jo if they weren’t friends with her, if that’s what friends are?!

Jo seems genuinely happy and so nonchalant. It’s nice to see Kit Karington in a role like this and Noemie Merlant is so great. She’s so talented. Being a woman is not easy, sometimes we can make it seem easy. We go through life smiling and saying we’re “fine” or “great”, and our world may be in such disarray. You know an asteroid heading towards earth but we’re just going to brush it off.

Jo goes into labor. Being a mom is an amazing thing. Women are incredible. The number of horrific things we can go through, and just get up and keep going. Some of us cannot have kids or we have not been able to have kids and it hurts. It hurts when you want to have children but you cannot. There are no words to fully describe what goes in your head. There is guilt and this feeling of people think your selfish or you just don’t want children, and they have NO IDEA, NO IDEA about the pain.

So, Jo delivers baby Ruby, welcome to the world as they say. This wild inebriated, toxic, but wonderful world. A world filled with madness, hate, chaos, destruction, pleasantness, and so much in between. Jo must poop before she leaves the hospital, the nurse is a tad harsh but that can be some nurses. The nurse chases Jo out with the placenta, because you know some folks save them, some folks eat them, some folks make shakes out the placenta.

To each his own as they say. Sometimes when you don’t have kids, people will remind you over and OVER, AND OVER. It makes you sad. I grew up with so many people, so many cousins, so many friends. People should just be more mindful of the horrific comments they make. That’s a big takeaway in this film. Jo already starts seeing wild shit. Post-partum can be horrible. Some babies sleep through the night, some babies don’t sleep at all.

Every single baby is different, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine that. Spencer is reading baby books, and Jo knows she can do this, she can handle this. She can be a mom, wife, influencer, make a difference. She can be friends with all of her mom neighbors, and so much more. I appreciate the fact that they didn’t sugarcoat anything. There is no full face of make-up for Jo, there is no, oh, let’s just get dressed up right away, and look dazzling. The dog trying to eat the leftover pizza crust while Jo stares aimlessly through the living room.

It’s realistic, it’s not bullshit. Kit and Noemie also truly seem like they have known each other forever, they feed off of one another. So, Jo wakes up and finds the dog eating something. There’s blood everywhere but don’t worry, Spencer’s a butcher. This cast is doing a great job. Meredith Hagner, Reed Birney, Jayne Atkinson, Lauren Beveridge, Maxwell Cosmo Cramer, and more.

Spencer’s mom comes and well, that seems fun. I suppose she means well but some of us learned early in life how to take care of ourselves because my mom had to work, she went right back to work after having me. There was no break, no help from no one. She did everything. A lot of people have so much help from families and they don’t truly appreciate it. People also think when you don’t have kids that you don’t understand the sacrifices, the heartache, the work, the stress, the being alone or wanting to be alone.

I have had horrible stuff happen to me in life, and what I wouldn’t give to have so much love and support. For someone to say, oh everything will be okay, for someone to hug me, and just say… It’s okay. Jo is trying to hold everything together in this Stepford Wives world. I feel a tad bit of Midsommar, and Rosemary’s Baby intermingled in this story. It’s a beautiful story. It’s sad yet scary, and so overwhelming at times. Jo’s next objective now seems to be obsessing over her baby body because, again women don’t have enough bullshit to worry about.

I want to be happy; I want to be enough but some random woman says something horrible. It feels awful. Spencer decides they need a date night, a night out away from Baby Ruby, Spencer’s mom, and everything in between. This movie covers so much. It covers everything from sexuality, heartache, life, death, brokenness, and more.

The mind is the monster in this movie. This was well made; the cinematography was beautiful. The location was fascinating. It was a character in the film. The cast did an amazing job.

Make sure to check out BABY RUBY. Oh, and hug your family.