The Back-up Plan

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin, Michaela Watkins, Eric Christian Olsen, Anthony Anderson, Melissa McCarthy
Directed by: Alan Poul
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2010

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Jennifer Lopez) becomes conceived through artificial insemination because she has never found the right guy, and she wants to have children. As soon as she becomes pregnant, she meets the man (Alex O'Loughlin) of her dreams.

Review:

Tim: While watching The Back-up Plan, it made me think about romantic comedies as a whole. Romantic comedies get a pretty bad rap, and I myself have been very hard on the genre. I questioned how much of my criticism was fair due to the low quality of romantic comedies being made, and how much of it was influenced by the fact that this isn't my favorite genre? It is a fair question to ask. In that light, I watched this movie trying to find the good in it. Unfortunately, I could not. This movie is so stupid and so poorly written, it is the perfect embodiment of what is wrong with the romantic comedy genre.

I really feel bad for people who truly love romantic comedies. It has to be infuriating to see so many movies that talk down to women and ensure every relationship is stripped of anything real and depicted in the most Hollywood manner possible. It's no surprise that when an honest, real film like Bridesmaids comes out, people flock to it. It is not impossible (or even especially challenging) to make a legitimately good romantic comedy, it's just that most people who make them take the laziest, least difficult approach. It's no wonder so many of these movies are bad.

My first complaint with this film is a common one for the genre- our romantic pair always have to have these artistic, creative, unique, interesting jobs. Listen, most people in the world don't live lives like these two. Jennifer Lopez's character gave up the corporate world to open up her own cutsey pet store. Nevermind that she has no qualifications to do so and seemingly no expertise in selling pets. Of course, she had to be a small business owner. Her love interest, played by Alex O'Loughlin, grew up on a farm, is a cheese expert, and dreams of opening up his own business someday. The whole thing just reeks of fake Hollywood glamour, especially when you see the apartments and cars these people drive (which are obviously, way out of their price range).

The movie itself just felt gimmicky all the way through. A woman gets pregnant through artificial insemination, and immediately meets the man she wants to marry. Obviously, hijinks ensue as he deals with the pregnancy thing. The problem is that very little is actually funny in this movie. The story goes to ridiculous lengths for laughs. Pay attention to how much falling, flopping, pushing, and shoving happens to Jennifer Lopez while she is pregnant. It was really worrisome, and I didn't understand why that would be considered funny. The dates they go on are so over-the-top and artificial that I almost could not believe my eyes. Only in Hollywood does a woman staring a man without a shirt on run into a tree with her car, and miraculously, have her dog (who is in the front seat) escape completely unharmed. It was lazy, pathetic writing like this that completely ruined the movie. Plus, there was this stupid recurring thing about the good luck that comes from finding pennies (but only if they are heads up!). The whole movie was completely absurd.

Jennifer Lopez was less than average in her role here. I suppose I applaud her for bringing energy to the role, but she isn't a very good actress. Alex O'Loughlin was fine. In the context of this film, he was one of the stronger aspects, although I don't know how much of a career he has ahead of him. Melissa McCarthy wasn't very funny at all. I like Eric Christian Olsen, but his character was completely underutilized and it felt like many of his scenes had to have been left on the cutting room floor. Otherwise, I have no idea why his character was even in the film. Anthony Anderson always makes me laugh, just because of how much energy he brings to his characters. He has one really funny scene in the park with his son, but that's about it.

There are enough good, quality romantic comedies out there to convince me that I'm not unfairly biased against this genre of film. Romantic movies can be great, they just can't follow the color-by-numbers approach of The Back-up Plan. This movie felt offensive to me- like it believed that by casting Jennifer Lopez and creating some weak story about babies and love, that women all over the world would flock to this crap and eat it up. The film only made $37 million at the box office, so not everyone was buying what this terrible film was selling. This is the kind of movie that gives romantic comedies a bad name.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5



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