The 1980s was an era of get-rich-quick and even richer hairstyles. The phones were still attached to the wall, computers and computer games took up mega-sized rooms, rather than be relegated to corner of the room being unassuming as such.
In the late 1980s, films like WORKING GIRL (1988) and BABY BOOM (1988) tried to tap into the ambition and career goals of women who were bound in some ways by the choice of motherhood, particularly those who had risen to executive positions.
Diane Keaton had already made her mark in cinema as Kay Adams in THE GODFATHER and a series of films with Woody Allen, ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN amongst others in the 1970s, but as the new decade arrived, Keaton was keen to branch out. In 1981, she starred opposite Warren Beatty in REDS, a biopic he directed about John Reed. In 1986, she starred alongside Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in a big-screen version of Beth Henley’s play CRIMES OF THE HEART.
In BABY BOOM, Keaton plays JC Wyatt, a driven executive for a top New York firm, who suddenly inherits a baby from a dead cousin who she has had no contact with for years. Attempting to balance the raising of the child with her work throws a real spanner into the works and has to quit.
She decides to head to the countryside in a house she sees in a property magazine and finds country life is not tranquil enough, but meets a vet (Sam Shepard) who looks after her when she faints from sheer exhaustion and stress.
However, the lure of the career drive is irresistible to her when she discovers a new way to regroup and rediscover her passion for work….
BABY BOOM represents a much lighter role for Keaton, who also appeared in a very dark tale with Richard Gere in 1977’s LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR, in which she played a woman who found her kicks in the after-hours bars with all manner of male suitors.
It’s a fun film and will be inspirational to those who really want to have balance in their life, both personally and professionally.