It’s rare that I get blindsided by a performer whose work I’ve simply never been exposed to before, but while watching Scrambled (written/directed/starring Leah McKendrick), that’s exactly what happened. McKendrick is not someone I was familiar with; she’s been in a few things I’ve seen, but in smaller parts. But here, she’s front and center in this dramedy about 34-year-old Nellie Robinson (McKendrick), who has lived the happy life of a single woman for so long that she comes to the startling realization that she’s without any genuine romantic prospects or means to have children “the old-fashioned way.” Scrambled takes a humorous but honest look at this phenomenon, the pressure put on women to not only couple but also have children. This isn’t exactly new territory for films in the last 20 years, but McKendrick’s take on it feels fresh and self-empowering.
The film opens with Nellie at the wedding of her ride-or-die best friend Shiela (SNL’s Ego Nwodim), who immediately regrets going through with the ceremony the minute she gets married. Their bond as friends is nicely established in this moment, and Nellie’s skills as the quintessential bridesmaid are undeniable as she talks her friend down with alcohol and a touch of illegal substances. At the wedding, Nellie runs into an old friend, Monroe (June Diane Raphael), who just had her first child at 40, calling it the most painful and awful experience of her life. It’s one of the funniest conversations in the film and ends with Nellie agreeing to look into getting her eggs frozen, since she doesn’t feel ready for kids at this moment.
Along her fertility journey, we meet Nellie’s parents (Clancy Brown and Laura Cerón) and her slightly dick-ish brother Jesse (Andrew Santino), who ends up lending her money to go through with the procedure. Adding to her anxiety about the whole thing, Nellie finds out that her ex-boyfriend (they broke up a year earlier because he wanted kids and she didn’t, and everyone is pushing for her to patch things up with him) just knocked up his new girlfriend. “That could have been you?” her father tells her in the least supportive way possible. Aside from being a bridesmaid, Nellie is also constantly attending baby showers, which become increasingly stressful because all of the attendees grill her about children. When she reveals to her female friends that she’s having her eggs frozen, they see this as an improvement in her life, but they aren’t quite ready to throw her a party about it.
Throughout the film, we follow Nellie to her various egg-harvesting appointments, watch her stress over giving herself injections to kickstart egg production, and generally watch her hormones take over every situation. McKendrick expertly walks a fine line between comedy and drama in each situation, and most of the time, she gets it just right. Nellie can be a goofball, a drunken mess, a sexy love interest, and a concerned friend, all within the space of a few minutes, and she does it beautifully. In one sequence in which Sheila needs her for guidance, Nellie shows up at a support group meeting to meet her and ends up spilling her fertility woes to the group, whose members maybe aren’t in the best place to hear these stories. But Nellie is so charming, they all seem to take comfort in hearing what she has to say; it’s a remarkable moment in a film that could have easily taken the jokey way out.
Without getting overly sentimental or wallowing in cliches, Scrambled takes Nellie on a journey not just to find a partner but to find herself. It’s a coming-of-age story that doesn’t judge how long it has taken this person to mature enough to even consider parenthood, but also wise enough to know she shouldn’t rush into it. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the film just worked for me, even when a joke doesn’t land or an emotional moment can’t quite hit the way it should. Like its lead character, the flaws make the movie all the more relatable and authentic.
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