Maya Closson (Anna Margaret Hollyman) is in love with Ronan Baines (Amir Arison), but when she learns she is pregnant, they soon face serious obstacles and decisions to be made that may be too much for their relationship. Through the story, the couple flips in their desires. At first, Maya considers terminating the pregnancy, while Ronan wants her to have the child. Ronan is brave and provides strength for Maya through his genuine commitment. Later, Maya has a change of heart and wants to keep the baby no matter what. But when the couple learns there is a potential birth defect, Ronan wants her to have an abortion. Maya sees the baby in the ultrasound and feels the unborn boy kick within her, and she becomes frustrated when she sees Ronan’s depressed attitude and fear. Their disagreements and arguments make for a difficult time and causes a fracture in the relationship.
Alas, we see Ronan lose his nerve; he goes from being brave to being a complete coward. In a sometimes baffling process, the film jumps back and forth amidst the couple’s journey from doctors’ offices to romantic moments to heated arguments.
20 Weeks is a slow, pondering look at evolving love. The performances and filmmaking are strong, but the story leaves us shaking our heads. In the best of ways, however, we witness the miraculous process of how pregnancy is not only a baby growing in a woman’s womb, but a woman’s (and hopefully her husband’s) great maturing inside her own heart.
In the first 30 seconds of the film, we see the couple having sex, and because of this, plus a bit of language, we aren’t able to award the Dove Approval. But the film makes perhaps the most important point of all—that few things in life are more powerful than the love between a woman and her child.