There comes a time in life when you have to settle as to what your priorities are going to be. A family, a career, giving up certain hobbies to keep others. Travel, full time motherhood, being the boss lady and trying to find yourself. Many of these fall in line with Diane Keaton's character here, a big executive whose sudden promotion to partner is threatened by instant motherhood. I don't think in any world I live in that you can just will a baby to someone, but that's exactly what happens to Keaton here, handed over a baby in the boarding area of JFK as she heads to a big meeting. Finding someone to adopt the child falls through as does finding a nanny either not sleeping around on the job or being a female version of Hitler are among other issues, and when issues at her firm come up, it's time for Keaton to do a little flip-flop in personality, turning into the Erma Bombeck she never thought she had it in her to be.

The sitcom like premise is saved by the witty script and the underplaying by Keaton, less neurotic than normal even if her frantic executive and new mommy has a few moments heading towards a breakdown. She loses a relationship with the non paternal Harold Ramis because of her new mommy status and seeing her try to run an office and keep a baby from crying is also amusing. What also works is watching this character grow up and realize that she's a woman, not a business machine, and not every woman in the new world of women in the work force is meant to be Oprah. So in spite of some minor implausabilities, this is quite well done. A scene in Riverside Park with Keaton getting mommy advice (among the women is "General Hospital's" Jane Elliott) is quite amusing. Look for a few Saturday Night Live vets in pivitol minor roles. The "Green Acres" switch towards the end is also very enjoyable, adding Sam Shephard as a veterinarian whom Keaton assumes to be a medical doctor. Love that 80's sound with a bouncy musical score consisting of several saxophones.

J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton) is a driven New York executive. She gets an inheritance from cousin Andy whom she hasn't seen since 1954, but it turns out to be a little baby girl. Her life is turned upside down. Her boyfriend Steven (Harold Ramis) can't take it and leaves. She moves out into the country. There he meets Dr. Jeff Cooper (Sam Shepard).

While it had a few funny moments, this is all very cliché. Diane Keaton acts like an idiot around a kid. The kid playing around with the spaghetti was very cute. And it was scary how Keaton lugged her around like a sack of potatoes. But it also gets very hammy like when Keaton has to use a thermometer on the baby. The jokes go over the line time after time from funny to stupid. She's a grown woman, not an idiot. Just when things start to look silly, they hit you with the adoption melodrama. It's tear jerker at its best, and its most manipulative. And that's how I feel about this movie. It jerks you around from one contrivance after another. Sometimes it works. Sometime it doesn't. It just drove me nuts to see a possibly good movie with a perfectly funny actress fall flat on its face again and again.

In New York, the executive J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton) is a successful business woman that prioritizes her work in a publicity agency over her personal life. Her boss Fritz Curtis (Sam Wanamaker) calls her tiger lady and invites J.C. to be partner of the agency provided she brings the account of the company owned by Hughes Larrabee (Pat Hingle) to the agency. One night, J.C. is sleeping with her boyfriend Steven Buchner (Harold Ramis) and receives a phone call from England telling that she has an inheritance something from her cousin that died in an accident with his wife. J.C. believes it is money but receives their daughter, the baby girl Elizabeth, instead. Soon she feels connected to the baby, turning her life upside-down: Steven breaks with her; her assistant Ken Arrenberg (James Spader) steals Larrabee´s account in the agency; and J.C. loses her job. She decides to buy a huge real estate in Vermont to raise Elizabeth and finds many unexpected problems in the old house. But soon she sees an opportunity to develop new business while she meets the veterinarian Dr. Jeff Cooper (Sam Shepard) giving another sense to her life.

"Baby Boom" is a funny comedy about a tough executive that changes her life after inheriting a baby girl. The plot has silly and exaggerated moments, but is hilarious most of the time. Diane Keaton has good performance and the baby Elizabeth is cute. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil):"Presente de Grego" ("A Curse in Disguise")