No one in Netflix’s Look Both Ways utters the word “abortion.” Not even once. In fact, beyond a cursory allusion to a character being “pro-choice,” the concept is all but completely ignored. Considering the entire premise of the movie hinges on whether or not the main character has an unplanned pregnancy, that feat would almost be impressive, if it weren’t so completely absurd.
Look Both Ways—which began streaming on Wednesday—stars Riverdale‘s Lili Reinhart as Natalie, a 22-year-old college graduate with a 5-year plan to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in animation. This five-year plan does not include a baby. Does she want a baby someday? Maybe! The movie doesn’t specify, likely because Natalie, like many well-off, educated 22-year-olds, has not yet considered the possibility of raising a child. Yet it becomes very clear that Natalie does not want a baby at this juncture in her life when, after having casual sex with her friend Gabe (played by Danny Ramirez), she has a pregnancy scare on graduation night.
It’s here that the movie splits into two Sliding Doors-esque parallel timelines. In one timeline, Natalie’s pregnancy test is negative, which she responds to with palpable relief, ecstatic joy, and a whole lotta shots. In the other timeline, her test is positive. Her response this time? Overwhelming fear, panic, and, eventually, a grim acceptance that raising this child is something that she “has” to do. But of course, as anyone who has ever had a similar unwanted pregnancy scare knows: She doesn’t, in fact, have to. The entire thesis of the movie that follows—that there are some things in life you can’t control, but it’ll all work out in the end—is undermined by a glaring, obvious, plot hole: Natalie could, if she wanted to, get an abortion!
Natalie is a young, healthy, woman with a large support network, including a best friend (a highly under-utilized Aisha Dee) willing to drive her across the country and parents well-off enough to afford a nice home in Austin. The father of her unborn child—the only one to bring up abortion when he haltingly assures Natalie he is “pro-your-choice”—says he’ll support her either way. Based on the lack of a single crucifix in her family home, it’s not an issue of Natalie’s religious beliefs. Nor is it an issue of moral beliefs—surely, she would have chastised Gabe for even bringing up the possibility of abortion, if she believed life began at conception? There is, in short, no narrative reason given for why abortion isn’t an option.
And yet, no one other than Gabe so much as mentions the option. No one says the a-word. Natalie isn’t shown entertaining the idea. Mere days after her positive pregnancy test, Natalie makes the choice—and it is a choice, no matter how much screenwriter April Prosser bends over backward to downplay it as such—to have a baby. “I don’t know how to explain, it just feels like this is something that I have to do. Like this is what was supposed to happen.”
That’s that on any and all abortion talk. The rest of the movie is spent demonstrating that Natalie can live a successful, fulfilling life with or without a child. But thanks to the flawed setup, this thesis feels meaningless. In a post-Roe world, when many are facing the very real threat of losing their right to choose altogether—when millions are taking to the streets to hold on to that right that millions before us spent decades fighting for—it’s more than an oversight. It’s offensive. You can help but wonder what the movie might have been had Natalie’s parallel universes hinged not on a pregnancy test, but on her decision to have the baby. Was no one behind the film willing to tread into that political territory? And if not, then why make the movie at all?
Reinhart, who is also an executive producer on the movie, was tasked with a bit of damage control in a recent interview with Variety. When asked about the film’s relevance to the recent reversal of Roe vs. Wade, the star responded, “This isn’t an abortion story movie, but it is a movie about a woman who had the opportunity to make a choice, and the choice was made on her own volition and it ended up being a beautiful decision for her because she was able to make it.”
Director Wanuri Kahiu had a slightly different take in a separate interview with Variety, saying, “Even though this film is not necessarily about choice, I love that it tells any young woman that regardless of which way your life goes if you truly follow your heart, you’ll be good. You’re making the right decision for yourself.”
But whether it wants to be or not, Look Both Ways is a movie about both abortion and choice. It just refuses to acknowledge that.