Kids can be shits. Adorable little shits, granted, but little shits none the less. As this film ably illustrates, their main purpose initially is to not only destroy the relationship between partners, but also the dynamic they share with their friends.

There's a point in your life when you suddenly realise that all your friends are ready to have children, and Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) have just reached it. During a meal with their friends, Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O'Dowd) announce that they're having their first child. Everyone is ecstatic for them, naturally, but they swear they aren't going to turn into those kind of parents.

Four years later and that's exactly what's happened. On top of that, their other friends Missy (Kristen Wiig) and Ben (Jon Hamm) have also now had their first child. With all their friends having kids, it would seem the most natural thing in the world for Julie and Jason to go down the same road. The thing is, they're not actually a couple; they've been the very best of friends since college and are really into each other, but just not that way.

After some discussion however, they decide that they shouldn't let a small thing like that stop them from having a child – together. Once they get past the awkwardness of actually making a baby, they appear to prove all their friends wrong by actually making their particular situation work. Jason continues to date with reckless abandon, and even Julie manages to get into the whole dating scene once again.

But despite believing in being in complete control of their relationship, they soon realise that neither were really that prepared for the psychological challenges of being a mom and dad without also being a loving couple.

I just wanted to let you know that I've decided to stop pretending I'm Irish and becomea US citizen - hoo-hah!

Although the majority of this cast starred in the blockbuster hit Bridesmaids, which they shot just previous to this one, this effort has a completely different feel to it.

The most noticeable difference is that the four Bridesmaids actors are really just peripheral roles, as the film's main focus of attention is the relationship between Scott and Westfeldt's characters.

In one sense it works well because of this; Scott and Westfeldt have a certain grounded charm about them, as neither could be described as strikingly attractive. Their relationship on screen, despite being unconventional, has a real warmth and believability about it and seems perfectly natural.

On the other hand it does feel that there was a missed opportunity with having an incredibly talented supporting cast do fairly little. Wiig in particular is woefully underused; she has the ability to steal scenes with the ease of a female Fagin, but appears to be creatively shackled most of the time.

Still, that's probably the advantage of not only being the leading lady, but also being the writer and director too. And just when you feel like Westfeldt has it all, she has that bit more by being Jon Hamm's partner in real life. Now that's a cat with a whole bowl of cream.

Although she handles the directing well enough, the dialogue isn't quite as sharp as it could have been, despite some nice, no doubt improvised, dialogue from many of her cast.

And although the film deals with a somewhat unconventional relationship, its conclusion is disappointingly predictable. There's also a tired familiarity with it being set in New York City; it appears that relationships anywhere else in the US just don't match up to those in the Big Apple.

Friends with Kids is a difficult film to dislike, particularly if you share a similar age, and therefore dilemma, of the characters involved. But where it might strike a familiar chord with many, it just falls short of letting its hair down and really going for it and having some fun, by slightly being a little too grown-up for its own good.