The plot of “Look Both Ways,” a Netflix original film, centres on Natalie, a young woman whose life is dramatically altered by the results of a pregnancy test. Either the test results are positive or negative, leaving only two options. The movie follows Natalie along two distinct roads while revealing to the audience the surprises that await her in both realities. Soon enough, it also becomes apparent that Natalie’s life is still heading in the same general path, despite the fact that the people in both situations may be slightly different. When we see the original Natalie once more at the conclusion, the story gains another complexity. For her, what does it mean? Does she have a baby or not? Let’s investigate.
Natalie may be pregnant.
The discovery of Natalie’s pregnancy serves as the story’s focal point in “Look Both Ways.” The single incident that alters Natalie’s life’s trajectory is what determines everything that follows. We don’t have a clear answer at the beginning of the movie since we see how her life can go in both directions. The timeline when she becomes pregnant, gives birth, and falls in love with Gabe is visible. When she visits LA and meets Jake in an alternate timeline in which she is not pregnant, her life and career take a different turn.
Both of her versions return to the spot where they had held the pregnancy tests at the end of the movie, hoping for a better result. Here, we see the original version once more and speculate about what will happen next. Because Natalie can only experience one of those scenarios, the question of her pregnancy becomes increasingly pressing. However, that is not the story’s main message.
When everything is said and done in both timeframes, we find that Natalie does achieve her goals, albeit in a different way than she had originally anticipated. She hadn’t considered having a child at the age of 22 in the timeline where she becomes pregnant. She does, however, have a developing, though not yet well-established, career in animation five years later. She has made the progress she had hoped to make five years ago. She also falls in love with Gabe, and the two get pregnant. It wasn’t in the plan for her to have a family at this point, but it doesn’t mean her life is any less fulfilling than she’d hoped.
Similar to how things don’t go as planned in the alternate timeline, Natalie. She loses her job, her idol criticises her for being unoriginal, and she splits up with the man she had been considering marrying. She still needs to return home for mental clarity despite having spent so much time in Los Angeles. She feels as though she has accomplished nothing while sticking to her own strategy. Her life changes at that point because she wants to start over. Jake reappears in her life after her film is accepted into SXSW.
The movie implies that Natalie will be fine in both timelines, whether or not she is pregnant. She might think she’s lost her direction or that she’s accomplished nothing worthwhile, but life will work itself out and she’ll find a way to fulfil her dream. She might thus not be pregnant. Her life could take any turn, just as it could take any turn for the audience. Through Natalie’s story, the movie offers the audience a chance to consider their own lives, to reevaluate all the plans they previously believed they should have followed, and to come to the realisation that, despite what they may believe, life is still on track and they will arrive where they are meant to in their own time.
If you’re wondering whether actress Lili Reinhart was pregnant throughout the movie, the answer is no. While Natalie’s pregnancy is still just another option. Not at all. Reinhart has not yet given birth, in spite of the pregnancy rumours that surfaced in 2018. She stated in an interview with Today that playing the timeline in which Natalie becomes pregnant and a mother was more thrilling for her because she hasn’t actually experienced motherhood and it was something fresh for her to explore through the role.