The Bechdel Test was created to measure the way women are depicted in film. It first appeared in Alison Bechdel’s comic Dykes to Watch Out For, and for a film to pass the test, the movie has to have at least one scene in which two female characters engage in conversation about something — anything — other than a man. The idea is that women are so often depicted on screen as romance-obsessed individuals who base all their self-worth on the men in their lives, that they no longer embody an active presence on screen. While not exactly a strict science, the test has become a unique way to gauge a movie’s intentions, and even though it’s a bit dated for the 21st century, it can still be useful to think about when watching the film. Especially when those films seemingly present themselves as progressive, feministic achievements.
To be frank, Leah McKendrick’s film Scrambled does not pass the test (or if it does, the scene is so brief and unforgettable that it’s easy to miss completely). This is surprising considering that it is a movie built around the premise of a thirtysomething woman deciding to freeze her eggs, even though she has no partner with whom to conceive a child. McKendrick herself plays Nellie, the bubbly party girl who just can’t ever seem to get her life together, and the film follows her through various ups and downs as she comes to terms with her lessening fertility and loosening grasp on her glorified irresponsible lifestyle.
Scrambled wants you to believe that Nellie is freezing her eggs for herself and no one else, but nearly every conversation she has with other women revolves around her decision to do this without a potential father figure in the picture. Friends and family members constantly ask her about her ex-boyfriend who, by everyone’s standards, was the best thing to ever happen to Nellie (i.e. the one that got away). Nellie even undergoes a Rob Gordon-esque life crisis in which she attempts to get in touch with past hook-ups and exes to try and rekindle the flame, or at the very least, understand what went wrong between them. The scenes are comical, and the dates are varying degrees of ick, but the schtick never really lands since Nellie really doesn’t move on from the idea of wanting (i.e. needing) a man somewhere down the line.
Unless of course, this is the point. Women are constantly expected to get married and have children, and even though Nellie’s decision to freeze her eggs is hers and hers alone, it is nearly impossible to talk about without mentioning the lack of a penis in the room. People are always going to want to know about the father, and if you start your fertility journey without a partner, people are going to want to know about that too. Scrambled, then, becomes a movie about a young woman fighting societal ideas about what it means to have children, as well as her own. Yes, she will eventually need sperm to help her conceive, but it’s her decision to protect her fertility. The movie does seem to strangely use the idea of children as the marker for becoming an adult, but it does so in a way that both honors the complexity of conception and the impact of motherhood. Scrambled, while a little runny, is a decently cooked egg that asks bigger questions about motherhood, choice and what it means to conceive a child with or without a partner.
Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
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