Over & Over: 1987's "Baby Boom"
by Eric Blume
Baby Boom, directed by Charles Shyer with a script by him and his then-wife Nancy Meyers, encapsulates 1987 beautifully. From young James Spader's Wham!-like hair to Keaton's fashions to the dated woman-in-the-workplace-can-she-have-it-all plot, it could be a time capsule film for the year and its essence. While we're celebrating 1987, this film couldn't be a better example of exactly where we were.
And yes, Baby Boom is a mercilessly commercial enterprise, engineered with cliche characters and "adorable" cutaway shots to the child inherited by the "Tiger Lady", J.C. Wiatt, played by Diane Keaton. I can't defend this movie as a work of fine cinema, but I've returned to it over a dozen times for the sheer joy in Keaton's peerless performance...