Review of A Deadly Adoption (2015) by Lucie F — 23 Jun 2015

Made for cable movie from Lifetime about a couple, Sarah (an successful organic farm stand owner) and Robert (a successful author), expecting their second child when Sarah suffers a tragic fall off their dock and loses the unborn child.

The two are stricken with grief. Robert throws himself into promotional tours of his new book (an alcohol) and Sarah focuses on her farm stand. The couple then meet a pregnant young woman who they take into their home in hopes of adopting her child and turning their lives around.

But when the young woman ends up not being who they thought, things begin to get deadly. However, Sarah and Robert are played by SNL alumni Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell, so the film is done squarely with tongue in cheek.

The stereotype of Lifetime Channel women-in-peril films are ripe for parody, but "A Deadly Adoption" is not a "Scary Movie" or "Blazing Saddles" type of parody that's filled with wall-to-wall gags.

For the most part, this film is played very straight. If someone were to watch this film and had no idea who Wiig or Ferrell were, or that a former SNL writer was the author of this film, you'd probably think that this was merely a cheesy made-for-cable movie.

However, knowing the comedy powerhouses involved in this film, there are subtle nods in-between the mock drama and suspense to the filmmakers' real comic intentions; such as the obvious foreshadowing with their daughter's diabetic condition ("I found an unopened box of chocolate today.

You know the dangers of diabetic ketoacidosis!") or when the surrogate mother pleads, ""Please don't make me shoot you again!" The film hits all the Lifetime movie stereotypes with a straight face and it all comes off as a brilliant and subversively meta comedy.