Editing Look Who's Talking

{{short description|1989 film by Amy Heckerling}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Look Who's Talking
| image          = Look_whos talking.jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Amy Heckerling]]
| producer       = [[Jonathan D. Krane]]
| writer         = Amy Heckerling
| starring       = {{Plain list | 
* [[John Travolta]]
* [[Kirstie Alley]]
* [[Olympia Dukakis]]
* [[George Segal]]
* [[Abe Vigoda]]
* [[Bruce Willis]]
}}
| music          = [[David Kitay]]
| cinematography = [[Thomas Del Ruth]]
| editing        = Debra Chiate
| studio         = M.C.E.G. Productions, Inc.
| distributor    = [[TriStar Pictures|Tri-Star Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1989|10|13}}
| runtime        = 96 minutes<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AFF062363/ | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120723014233/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AFF062363/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 23, 2012 | title=''Look Who's Talking'' (12) | publisher=[[British Board of Film Classification]] | date= 1990-01-04 | access-date= 2012-03-21}}</ref>
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $7.5 million<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097778/business | title=''Look Who's Talking'' (1989) - Box office / business | work=[[Internet Movie Database]] | publisher=[[Amazon.com]] | access-date=2012-03-21}}</ref>
| gross          = $297 million<ref name="mojo"/>
}}
'''''Look Who's Talking''''' is a 1989 American [[romantic comedy]] film written and directed by [[Amy Heckerling]] and produced by M.C.E.G. Productions, Inc. and released on October 13, 1989 by [[TriStar Pictures|Tri-Star Pictures]]. Starring [[John Travolta]] and [[Kirstie Alley]],<ref>{{cite news|title= Look Who's Smiling . . . : Movies: The hit "Look Who's Talking" has made writer-director Amy Heckerling hot again--thanks to her daughter.|work= The Los Angeles Times|date=October 26, 1989|url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-26-ca-1013-story.html|access-date=2010-11-06|first=Daniel|last=Cerone}}</ref> the film concerns the relationship between single mother Mollie (Alley) and her infant son Mikey's babysitter, James (Travolta). [[Bruce Willis]] provides the voice of Mikey's precocious thoughts, heard only by the audience.<ref>{{cite news | title= Witty Fun for Grown-Ups in 'Look Who's Talking' | work= The Los Angeles Times | date=October 13, 1989 | url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-13-ca-93-story.html | access-date=2010-08-24 | first=Chris | last=Willman}}</ref> The film also features [[Olympia Dukakis]], [[George Segal]], and [[Abe Vigoda]] in supporting roles.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, but it was nevertheless an enormous box office success, grossing $297 million worldwide<ref name="mojo" /> on its budget of $7.5 million.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Look Who's Talking'' (1989) - Box office / business |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097778/business |access-date=2023-06-07 |work=[[Internet Movie Database]] |publisher=[[Amazon.com]]}}</ref> This success launched a [[Look Who's Talking (franchise)|titular franchise]], including two sequels ''[[Look Who's Talking Too]]'' (1990) and ''[[Look Who's Talking Now!]]'' (1993), and a television series [[Spin-off (media)|spin-off]] titled ''[[Baby Talk (TV series)|Baby Talk]].''

==Plot==
Mollie Jensen, an accountant living in New York City, becomes pregnant during an affair with Albert, a married client. The fetus, heard only by the audience, begins making commentary on his development. Albert assures Mollie that he will leave his wife to be with her, but in her ninth month, while out shopping, Mollie and her friend Rona catch Albert with yet another woman. Albert admits he does not plan to stay with Mollie, and the heartbreak and stress cause her to go into labor. A taxi driver, James Ubriacco, speeds through downtown traffic to get her to the hospital in time and subsequently witnesses the baby's birth after being mistaken for the father. Mollie becomes a dedicated single mother to baby Mikey, whose thoughts the audience continues to hear.

James tracks Mollie down using the purse she left in the cab, and convinces her to allow him to use her Manhattan address to help him set up nursing care for his grandfather Vincent in exchange for his services as a babysitter. Over the next several months, James develops a bond with Mikey as Mollie goes on several failed dates in hopes of finding him a suitable stepfather. Mikey, having seen his friends' fathers at the playground, decides that James should be his father.

James, who moonlights as a flight instructor, takes Mollie flying, and she begins to fall for him. James tells Mollie that he loves her and Mikey, but she believes he is too immature to be Mikey's father. Things get worse when Mollie is forced to work with Albert again, and he attempts to re-insert himself into Mikey's life. When he shows up to Mollie's apartment unannounced, James, who had thought Mollie was artificially inseminated, gets into a fight with him, and Mollie admits that it might be best for everyone if James wasn't in Mikey's life. Mollie allows James to say goodbye to Mikey; he gives him a few pieces of fatherly advice as Mollie listens over the baby monitor.

Mollie takes Mikey to Albert's office to meet him, but Albert's behavior shows that he is still too callous and selfish to be the full-time father Mikey needs, and Mollie leaves him for good. Later that day, Mollie and James are both called to Grandpa Vincent's retirement home to intervene in a miscommunication between him and the staff. Mollie defuses the situation just as James arrives, and they make up.

Meanwhile, Mikey wanders off when he sees what he thinks is James's taxi and ends up standing in the middle of traffic. James comes to his rescue, and Mikey says his first real word: "Da-da". James and Mollie realize that Mikey already sees James as his father and they decide to give their relationship a chance, kissing passionately while Mikey considers telling them he needs a new diaper. Nine months later, Mollie gives birth to her and James' daughter and Mikey's half-sister Julie, complete with her own inner voice.

==Cast==
* [[John Travolta]] as James Ubriacco, a taxi driver who also works as a flight instructor
* [[Kirstie Alley]] as Mollie Jensen, an accountant and Mikey's mother
* [[Olympia Dukakis]] as Rosie Jensen, Mollie's mother and Mikey's grandmother
* [[George Segal]] as Albert, Mikey's biological father
* [[Abe Vigoda]] as Vincent Ubriacco, James's grandfather
* [[Bruce Willis]] as the voice of Mikey, Mollie's son
** Jason Schaller, Jaryd Waterhouse, Jacob Haines, and Christopher Aydon portray Mikey as a fetus/newborn, at 4 months, and at 1 and 2 years, respectively
* [[Twink Caplan]] as Rona, Mollie's co-worker and best friend
* [[Joy Boushel]] as Melissa, Albert's interior decorator and mistress
* [[Joan Rivers]] as the voice of Julie (uncredited)

==Production==
The idea for the film came shortly after the birth of [[Amy Heckerling]]'s daughter [[Mollie Israel]] in 1985. Heckerling recalled: "We'd be making up lines and I thought, this is a movie".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Gina |title='Look Who's Talking' Director Amy Heckerling Spills 7 Tidbits, 25 Years Later – Kirstie’s Crush, Travolta’s Moves |url=https://www.thewrap.com/look-whos-talking-director-amy-heckerling-spills-7-tidbits-25-years-later-kirsties-crush-travoltas-moves/ |website=The Wrap |access-date=22 March 2024}}</ref> [[Harold Ramis]] believed the character of Albert to be based on himself, as he was secretly the biological father of Heckerling's child. Like Albert, Ramis was in the process of leaving his wife during Heckerling's pregnancy but ultimately ended up with a third woman.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/the-story-of-harold-ramis-and-amy-heckerlings-daughter.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712233419/https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/the-story-of-harold-ramis-and-amy-heckerlings-daughter.html | archive-date=2021-07-12 | title=The Story of Harold Ramis and Amy Heckerling's Secret Daughter | date=5 June 2018}}</ref>

==Reception==
{{Anchor|Critics|Critical response}} 
The film received mixed reviews. {{RT prose|{{RT data|score}}|{{RT data|average}}|{{RT data|count}}|''Look Who's Talking'' holds some appeal thanks to its affable stars and Amy Heckerling's energetic direction, but a silly script doesn't allow wit to get a word in edgewise.|ref=yes|access-date=October 6, 2021}} {{Metacritic film prose|51|15|ref=yes|access-date=October 13, 2023}} Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.<ref name="CinemaScore">{{cite web |url=https://m.cinemascore.com |title=CinemaScore |work=cinemascore.com}}</ref>

''Look Who's Talking'' was a surprise hit, opening at [[List of 1989 box office number-one films in the United States|number one in the United States]] with $12,107,784 in its opening weekend and staying at number one for five weekends with grosses over $10 million each weekend. It eventually grossed $140,088,813 domestically and a worldwide total of $296,999,813,<ref name="mojo">{{mojo title|lookwhostalking|Look Who's Talking}}</ref> making it Travolta's most successful film in eleven years since ''[[Grease (film)|Grease]]'', the fourth highest-grossing film of 1989,<ref name="mojo"/> and Columbia TriStar's highest-grossing film overseas, surpassing ''[[Kramer vs. Kramer]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=With $55-mil rentals, 'Look Who's Talking' becomes Col's No. 2 moneymaker o'seas|date=August 15, 1990|page=42}}</ref>

The film was released in the [[United Kingdom]] on April 6, 1990, and topped the country's box office that weekend.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.25thframe.co.uk/charts/chart.php?chart=19900406|title=UK Weekend Box Office 6th April 1990 - 8th April 1990|publisher=www.25thframe.co.uk|access-date=20 February 2019}}</ref>

==Sequels==
The film was successful enough to spawn two [[sequel]]s: ''[[Look Who's Talking Too]]'' (1990) and ''[[Look Who's Talking Now!]]'' (1993). [[John Travolta]], [[Kirstie Alley]], and [[Olympia Dukakis]] are the only actors to appear in all three films in the series. The success of the first two films also inspired an [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] [[sitcom]] called ''[[Baby Talk (TV series)|Baby Talk]]'', which aired from 1991 to 1992, and featured [[Tony Danza]] as the voice of "Baby Mickey".

In 2010, ''[[Fast & Furious]]'' producer [[Neal H. Moritz]] was planning to [[Film remake|reboot the series]], with the Mikey character now grown up and the father of the baby in the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a212729/looks-whos-talking-reboot-in-the-works.html|title='Looks Who's Talking' reboot in the works|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|work=[[Digital Spy]]|publisher=[[Hachette Filipacchi Médias]]|date=April 6, 2010|access-date=April 7, 2010}}</ref> In 2019, director [[Jeremy Garelick]] was writing the script for the reboot.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2019/07/look-whos-talking-reboot-jeremy-garelick-adam-fields-bruce-willis-kirstie-alley-john-travolta-screen-gems-1202643156/|title=Screen Gems Taking Baby Steps On 'Look Who's Talking' Reboot With Jeremy Garelick & Adam Fields|last= Fleming|first=Mike Jr.|date=2019-07-08|website=Deadline|language=en|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref> In February 2020, Travolta and Alley expressed interest in reprising their roles from the original trilogy now in the role of grandparents.<ref name="Future_MW">{{cite web|url=https://movieweb.com/look-whos-talking-remake-kirstie-alley-john-travolta/|work=MovieWeb|title=Kirstie Alley and John Travolta Volunteer for Look Who's Talking Reboot|author=Dick, Jeremy|date=February 17, 2020|accessdate=February 1, 2024}}</ref> With Alley's death in December 2022 from [[colon cancer]], the status of this project is uncertain.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0097778|Look Who's Talking}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/look-whos-talking-am2511 Look Who's Talking AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|id=81789}}
* {{AFI film|58179}}
* {{mojo title|lookwhostalking|Look Who's Talking}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|look_whos_talking|Look Who's Talking}}

{{The Look Who's Talking Trilogy}}
{{Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie}}
{{Amy Heckerling}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Look Who's Talking}}
[[Category:1980s pregnancy films]]
[[Category:1989 films]]
[[Category:1989 romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:1989 independent films]]
[[Category:American independent films]]
[[Category:American pregnancy films]]
[[Category:American romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:Films adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Films about babies]]
[[Category:Films directed by Amy Heckerling]]
[[Category:Films scored by David Kitay]]
[[Category:Films set in New York City]]
[[Category:Films shot in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Amy Heckerling]]
[[Category:TriStar Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films about accountants]]
[[Category:Films about parenting]]
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about children]]
[[Category:1980s American films]]
[[Category:English-language independent films]]
[[Category:Look Who's Talking (franchise)]]
[[Category:English-language romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award–winning films]]