Baby Boom (1987)
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A driven Manhattan career woman must navigate the complexities of motherhood after inheriting a baby from a distant relative.
The story
J.C. Wiatt, a driven management consultant known as the 'Tiger Lady,' is focused on her demanding career and has no interest in children. However, her life is upended when she discovers that a deceased distant cousin has left her a 14-month-old baby girl named Elizabeth as an inheritance. Initially unwilling to disrupt her hectic lifestyle, J.C. decides to raise the child, leading to a breakup with her boyfriend who has no desire to be a parent. As she struggles to balance her professional ambitions with the demands of motherhood, she faces challenges in her corporate role and eventually finds herself making difficult choices about her future and her identity.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
J.C. Wiatt, a high-powered management consultant, finds her life transformed when she inherits her distant cousin's orphaned daughter, Elizabeth. After her boyfriend leaves her because he refuses to share parenthood, J.C. attempts to balance her career with raising the child. After a setback at her firm where she is passed over for a promotion in favor of a colleague, she moves to a rural farmhouse in Vermont. There, she experiences a breakdown but eventually finds success by starting a gourmet baby food business called Country Baby. She meets a local veterinarian, Jeff, and begins a romance. When her former firm offers her a lucrative deal to buy her company and return to her old life in Manhattan, she chooses to stay in Vermont, embracing her new life as a mother, a business owner, and a woman in love.
- First release year
- 1987
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Charles Shyer
- Writers
- Nancy Meyers · writer; Charles Shyer · writer
- Cast and characters
- Diane Keaton · J.C. Wiatt; Harold Ramis; Sam Wanamaker; Sam Shepard
- Genres
- comedy-drama
- Themes
- motherhood; work-life balance; career vs. family
- Tone and mood
- comedy; drama; heartfelt
- Premise and plot tags
- parenting; business; romance
- Franchise connections
- television series
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 70% · review count: 46 critics; Metacritic · score: 53% · review count: 9 critics
- Awards and nominations
- Golden Globe · Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical · Nominated; Golden Globe · Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical · Nominated; National Society of Film Critics Award · Best Actress · Nominated; American Comedy Awards · Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture · Nominated
- Production trivia
- The film spawned a television series of the same name (1988–1989).; A remake was announced for Amazon MGM Studios in November 2025.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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