Cobie Smulders reminds us that she’s more than an agent of “S.H.I.E.L.D” in “Unexpected,” playing a pregnant teacher who bonds with her star student, who also happens to be pregnant.
Neither Samantha Abbott (Smulders) nor Jasmine (Gail Bean) planned these babies. Sam teaches high school and dreams of working at Chicago’s Field Museum, but she and her live-in beau (Anders Holm) did something that has her heaving over the toilet, Googling “pregnancy symptoms” and shopping for early pregnancy tests.
Jasmime is a rising senior at Sam’s inner city Chicago school, the kid most likely to get out. Then she falls into the same trap as the mother who dumped her on her grandmother — teen pregnancy.
Teacher and student give each other someone to lean on during when the menfolk are either inflexible (Sam’s man, who hastily marries her) or juvenile and MIA (Jasmine’s guy).
Elizabeth McGovern gives a nice neediness to Sam’s mom, hurling herself into her daughter’s pregnancy. The script contrives to make Sam resent that and lash out.
The student-teacher dynamic is what pays dividends, here, as Jasmine starts to feel the humiliation of the cliche she’s living out. White people patronize her, assuming “poverty” and “she just doesn’t know any better.” When she does, but she’s made her choice.
And Sam is the object of stereotyping, as well, via Jasmime, who assumes a planned pregnancy from a woman who might have to postpone — briefly — her dreams, thanks to the disappointment of a pregnancy, who looks as if “You always on your way to prenatal yoga!”
Jasmine?
“My whole life is a disappointment!”
Mumblecore maven Kris Swanberg co-wrote and directed this, a film which could have used more sparks in the confrontations, more snap to the banter and more originality — start to finish.
Strip away the profanity — because that’s how a lot of women react to the news that they’re pregnant, and later the unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy — and “Unexpected” is just a sweet “Lifetime Original Movie.” That’s movie fan code for “female friendly drama with most of the rough edges rubbed off.”
But Smulders and Bean make a believable pair, mismatched women who connect in a mentor-pupil way, then evolve into a deeper understanding thanks to unexpected pregnancies.

MPAA Rating: R for language

Cast: Cobie Smulders, Gail Bean, Anders Holm, Elizabeth McGovern,
Credits: Directed by Kris Swanberg, script by Megan Mercier and Kris Swanberg. A Film Arcade release.