Review of The Back-Up Plan (2010) by Joshua J — 05 Oct 2010

There appeared to be no plan at all to 'The Back-Up Plan'.

The plot - in a nutshell. Zoe has decided she might miss her chance to be a mother because she hasn't found "the one". She conceives twins through artificial insemination, and on the same day that she is inseminated - BANG! She meets Stan. Who (pat yourself on the head if you guessed it) is "the one".

I didn't have high expectations going in to this movie. Sure, the trailer made the film look fun - but be warned, the only two entertaining minutes of the whole movie have been squeezed into the film's theatrical trailer.

The "funny" moments are either unoriginal or completely awkward. The attempts to make the film a comedy are pathetic ? slapstick meets toilet humour - there is absolutely nothing classy here. There is a waterbirth scene which swerved away from being at all humorous and became irritating and repulsive - and completely demeaning.

The scary thing about 'The Back-Up Plan' is that Jennifer Lopez was hands-down the best part of the movie. And even she's terrible in it. An awful script which could have been photocopied from any one of the romantic comedies made in Hollywood recently, zero chemistry between the two leads, a supporting cast who might as well not have been there in the first place and painful attempts at humour makes this movie 90 minutes of torture.

Outside of Jennifer Lopez's character Zoe there is no other character development. Alex O'Loughlin is washed out as Zoe's cheese-making love interest Stan - a fact which was not helped by the awful, awful dialogue and complete lack of on-screen chemistry with JLo. This role could maybe - maybe - have been salvaged by a superstar rom-com actor, but as it stands Stan is almost instantly forgettable. Except for the fact that he makes cheese.

The same goes for the cookie-cutter best friends - whose names I actually had to look up, then promptly forgot again - and who seem to have no function in the movie except to look bewildered and act condescending.

The bulk of the movie plays off atrocious stereotypes. You would almost never guess that the screenwriter was a woman. Zoe joins a single mom support group which is filled with hippies, maybe-or-maybe-not lesbians and a mother who insists on breastfeeding her three-year-old child. Honestly, painting single mothers as freaks or uber-feminists? Come on, Hollywood. Get a grip. As a woman, I was insulted. In fact, I can't even believe that JLo took the role. The film starts off with the idea that a woman can take control of her own fertility and then midway through descends into enforcing the fact that actually, anybody who decides to be a single mother and forsake the traditional get-married-have-kids route is a freak? Please!

It's a romantic comedy, so by its very nature it's predictable. Unless you're a Jennifer Lopez fan and are eager to see her return to the big screen, you might want to steer clear. And leave your guy friends or partner at home. In fact, anybody that you might want to remain friends with after dragging them through this.