Expecting 2013

Andie reaches out to a longtime friend late in the evening, and the morning finds Lizzie’s husband Peter stumbling upon Andie as she has breakfast alone. The film drifts into a tense, emotionally charged couples therapy session with Doctor Grayson, where Peter vents that Andie knew Leslie planned a fourth IVF before he did, and Andie counters that their efforts have yielded little progress and left her feeling worn down. In parallel, we learn a bit about Peter’s work as a real estate agent and the one client who never seems to buy a house, always accompanied by a different companion, and about Lizzie’s quieter life tutoring a high school student. Andie’s life takes a sharp turn when she discovers she’s pregnant from a recent one-night-stand and can’t bring herself to terminate the pregnancy. Her ready-made solution is to offer the baby to Lizzie and Peter, a proposition that at first seems wildly impractical to him, yet something softens after Andie’s birthday.

Soon after, Andie moves in with Lizzie and Peter, a decision that unsettles the couple even as they begin to glimpse the possibility of a family arrangement. The first ultrasound marks a turning point: Peter hears the baby’s heartbeat and, despite lingering doubts, seems to lean toward adoption. Yet the dynamics in the household grow more complicated. Peter returns from a work trip to find his brother Casey—fresh from another rehab stint—back in town. A backyard barbecue becomes a microcosm of the family’s frayed bonds as Casey’s presence forces awkward conversations and painful truths to surface. Casey speaks plainly about adoption and warns that not all adopted children follow negative paths, a remark that lands with a quiet, unsettling weight on everyone in the room. Peter, who has been juggling mortgage worries and the pressure of keeping the family intact, convinces Lizzie to allow him to stay, arguing that the clinic suggested it might be better for everyone if he remained nearby at the outset.

Financial strain tightens its grip: Peter admits he hasn’t sold a property in a while and worries about making the mortgage. Andie offers to borrow against her father’s resources, a proposal Peter initially resists but ultimately accepts when there are few other options. The couple escapes to Palm Springs for a weekend, wary of Casey but gradually warming to him as they share games, conversation, and small acts of vulnerability. They return home to discover Andie and Casey sharing a private moment, and the revelation forces them to confront how well they truly know the people around them. Andie wonders aloud whether she and Casey could be capable parents for her child, and Casey finally learns the full truth about the pregnancy.

Peter’s protective instinct toward Casey intensifies as the weeks unfold. He follows Casey to his apartment, feeling a sense of responsibility toward the troubled young man since their parents have passed away. The tension peaks when Andie and Lizzie request proof that Casey is STD-free, a demand that pushes Casey to a breaking point and underscores the fragility of the fragile domestic balance. The group returns to therapy with Doctor Grayson, and Lizzie’s temper erupts when she feels ganged up on in the session, leading her to walk out. The therapist marks this as a breakthrough moment for her, a sign that the underlying issues are beginning to surface in a way that cannot be ignored.

Back at Casey’s place, life grows tense as Casey and Peter clash, and Casey insists he doesn’t want a roommate cramping his space. Yet a glimmer of warmth appears when Casey and Andie take a quiet walk with the family dog, Joyce, and discover a deeper, more genuine connection that hints at what a family could look like with both of them in it. A clandestine rendezvous develops between Lizzie and Peter, a moment of respite that is undone when Lizzie forgets to close the gate and Joyce slips outside. The day becomes a chaotic scan of worry: Lizzie and Peter argue about the future, Joyce bounces between the two, and Andie goes into labor, contacting Casey when Lizzie can’t answer.

The hospital visit arrives just as hope and fear collide: the brothers help Andie through delivery, and Lizzie realizes too late that Andie has already bonded with the newborn, a baby boy. Lizzie must come to terms with a life in which she may not be the mother who raises Andie’s child, and Peter makes the difficult choice to move out as he processes the new reality. Casey, too, shows signs of healing, his relationship with his brother slowly improving in the wake of the family’s upheaval. Andie’s baby, Gus, enters the world under the watchful eyes of those who care about him, and the entire household learns to adapt to the new configuration despite the lingering tensions.

More than six months pass, and the past still lingers at the edges of everyday life. Lizzie happens upon Andie again, now with little Gus in her arms, and discovers Andie living with her father, whose young girlfriend is pregnant. The sentence of the past softens into a quiet peace, as the old friends begin to repair their ties and redefine their roles within a larger, evolving family. The narrative closes on a note of reconciliation and endurance, with the sense that love, responsibility, and a willingness to redefine family can endure even amid complicated loyalties and complicated lives.