But only occasionally, as Nine Months is a cute, lighthearted, and more or less fun romantic comedy.

Here’s the story. Grant, as Samuel, and Julianne Moore, as Rebecca, have had five years of frolicking and fun in not quite marital bliss. He is an accident-prone child psychologist, she is a dance teacher, together they have a lovely life. Until… she gets pregnant and he freaks out.

This film drags a bit in the first half. Grant whines. Moore preaches and nags. Thank heaven for big, boisterous Marty and Gail (played by Tom Arnold and Joan Cusack), the proud parents of three rather monstrous girls. You know people like them. And you avoid them. Which is precisely what Samuel and Rebecca try to do, until both couples end up as friends through the miracle of pregnancy.

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Add Robin Williams to the mix, a confused Russian doctor with a disturbing habit of confusing anatomical names and medical procedures and poor mechanical aptitude, and voila! We are saved from what could have been an amazingly boring look at the lives of the young and upwardly mobile. Instead we get something worth watching like a hilarious trip to the hospital and a birth scene that will leave you convulsing with pain from laughing so hard.

Unfortunately for the viewer, most of the funniest scenes were given away in the previews, so if you have seen too many of them, you may be disappointed. The highly publicized Arnie the Dinosaur scene is hilarious (if you have seen even five seconds of the real Barney the Dinosaur show you can understand the hatred he inspires), while the attempts at mild slapstick humor work, thanks in large part to Arnold’s portrayal as the overzealous Marty.

Nine Months is directed by the man responsible for the Home Alone movies and Mrs. Doubtfire, Chris Columbus. Does he break new ground and explore the boundaries of the human condition? No. But Nine Months is still entertaining. You’ll laugh. And then probably quickly forget about it. That is the nature of being cute it fades rather quickly. Unlike Hugh’s rather botched foray into the world of prostitution.