Hollywood paints an updated portrait of the American family

With the exception of Splice, where the man is the one with baby fever, the films repainting the picture of the American family begin as stories of how parenthood is more urgent for the female character(s) than for the male. This trend reflects 2010 figures from the Washington-based Population Research Bureau: 24 percent of America's 75 million children under 18 live in single-mother families.

With the exception of The Kids Are All Right, where it is implied, this batch of new-American family films is overwhelmingly about women who take procreation into their own hands. In the '70s of Looking for Mr. Goodbar, movies purveyed anonymous sex; today, in the era of The Switch, they purvey anonymous sperm.

Used to be, first comes love, then marriage and baby carriage. Now it's first comes sperm, then comes baby. As A.O. Scott of the New York Times observed this month, "The childishness of grown men and the childlessness of grown women [have become] the twin axioms of big-screen comedy."

Despite the nontraditional clans represented, says the University of Minnesota's May, "it's interesting how all these films are pro-family, and how the bonds of love and care are affirmed."

In other words, the more things change, the more the challenges of couplehood, parenting, and family life remain the same. What's for dinner?

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com. Read her blog, "Flickgrrl," at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl