The Back-up Plan is boring

J LO wants children
10 April 2012

I’ve given up trying to understand why I was so profoundly bored by the new rom-com from Jennifer Lopez. She really isn’t too bad as Zoe, who wants a child but can’t find a man worthy of being its father. But Alan Poul’s movie saunters along as if all concerned had decided that imagination and flair were either unnecessary or impossible.

Zoe is a real case. Straightaway, we see a doctor peering into her private parts and announcing that, yes, she can have a child by artificial insemination and, by the way, he knows an excellent single mother group able to help her through the pregnancy. Later we realise that she’s made a big mistake — along comes Alex O’Loughlin’s Stan, who sells organic cheese, and she realises she has finally found someone. What will he think when she blurts out the fact that she’s preggers, and with twins too?

Well, we all know there will be ructions but that, in the end, the two will hold hands and walk together into a wonderful sunset. But the film takes 103 minutes and that seems a terribly long time. There may be a laugh here and there, but on the whole this is instantly forgettable pap.

The Back-Up Plan
Cert: 12A

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