The Back-up Plan

Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) wants a baby. Her body clock is ticking, she’s seeing babies everywhere and nothing is going to stop her having one- not even the absence of a partner. The film opens with Zoe being impregnated by a doctor through artificial insemination. She walks out of the doctor’s office and into a fight over a taxi with a hunky male. In case you’re wondering, the storyline doesn’t get any less ridiculous. There’s no guesswork about what will happen next. Her squeeze Stan is played by Alex O’Loughlin and judging by this film alone, I think he’s a terrible actor. Sure, he’s got the look but I wasn’t doing any melting for him, in fact I hated him.

Of course, the insemination works, Zoe is pregnant but she has just starting falling for Stan. He is dazed by the discovery of the pregnancy, torn between his feelings for her and the impact that choosing to be a father will have on his life. I just couldn’t connect with Stan though. I spend the whole film hoping they would break up so that I wouldn’t have to see him anymore. Every fight had me clinging onto the hope that Zoe would see how irritating he was. It’s the supporting cast that provides the bulk of the entertainment in the Back-Up Plan. The quirky doctor, the single mothers group and the ‘playground dad’ add most of the comedy to this film. Although, I do think anyone who has ever been pregnant will enjoy all the other humour that goes along with having a bun in the oven.

Visually, this film was quite a nice representation of New York City. The filming in the city took place over two weeks and in that time they fit in a variety of locations including the Tribeca Farmer’s Market, Park Avenue, along the brownstones of Greenwich Village, Fifth Avenue along Central Park and at Gray’s Papaya on Sixth Avenue. I always enjoy getting to see snippets of real places in films rather than all the action happening purely on sets. They chose these areas in New York so that when they got back to LA, they could replicate the look of the Big Apple and make the film seamlessly fit together.

Overall, This is a classic romantic comedy that is not the worst of its kind but by no means the best either.

Rating 5/10. I’m giving it five points for the following reasons: I happen to like Jennifer Lopez in general and I’m not sure why, there were a few moments that made me genuinely laugh out loud, there was a cameo from Cesar Millan, I was a little shocked at how honest and somewhat graphic the pregnancy scenes were and finally there was a very slight attempt to tackle the brutality of dog inbreeding in ‘puppy farms’. The dogs that featured in the film were trained over a number of weeks by Marley & Me trainer April Macklin.

Recommended for: people that like predictable rom-coms, pregnant women, movies to bring your mother to see, people that fancy Jennifer Lopez but don’t like hearing her sing.

Not recommended for: Most men, people that like ‘hard hitting’ topics that make them reflect on their own life, those that like challenging and erratic story-lines.

If you want to see it for yourself, The Back-up Plan hits cinemas this Friday May 5th.