Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer, a married directing duo, have crafted a romantic comedy that draws directly from their lived experience as parents navigating infertility and the emotional terrain of trying to conceive. Their film "All That She Wants" stars Annie Murphy and Cooper Raiff as a couple confronting the biological and psychological pressures of attempting pregnancy.
The couple's creative partnership mirrors their personal journey. Bermingham and Rhymer developed as both artists and parents while conceiving the project, and that parallel growth shaped every narrative choice. The film examines how desire for a child can strain even the strongest relationships, transforming the rom-com genre from wish fulfillment into something rawer and more introspective.
The pairing of Murphy and Raiff carries particular weight. Murphy, known for her scene-stealing role as Alexis Rose in "Schitt's Creek," brings comedic timing and emotional vulnerability to a character who must navigate society's expectations around motherhood. Raiff, who wrote, directed, and starred in the indie darling "Cha Cha Real Smooth," brings a similar indie sensibility to male desire and confusion. Both actors excel at balancing humor with genuine pathos, qualities essential to a film that refuses to sentimentalize either infertility or the impulse to have children.
The screenplay resists easy answers. Rather than celebrating parenthood as life's natural endpoint or dismissing it as optional, "All That She Wants" occupies the difficult middle ground where most people actually live. It explores how medical interventions, financial constraints, social judgment, and relationship dynamics converge into a crisis that a single conversation cannot resolve. The rom-com structure, with its promise of resolution and happiness, becomes almost antagonistic to the material itself.
What distinguishes this project from other fertility-focused narratives is directorial ownership. Bermingham and Rhymer brought their own stakes to every scene. They understand the specific embarrassments of this experience, the ways hope collapses into frustration, how desire persists even when circumstances suggest abandonment might be healthier. Their dual perspective as a creative partnership allowed them to examine both partners' interiority without defaulting to tired gender stereotypes.
The film arrives during a cultural moment when conversations around reproductive autonomy have become increasingly polarized. Yet "All That She Wants" sidesteps political controversy to explore something more intimate: the gap between what people expect their lives to contain and what actually unfolds. That gap often contains comedy, and always contains heartbreak.
Bermingham and Rhymer's decision to work as codirectors strengthens the material. Rather than defaulting to a single authorial voice, they created space for complexity. The result is a film that honors both the absurdity and the gravity of what its characters endure. In an era when too many rom-coms retreat into fantasy, this one plants itself firmly in consequence and real emotion.