The Back-Up Plan *

Arriving in my local cinema unusually late – a full month after it was first released in cinemas across the UK – The Back-Up Plan sees Jennifer Lopez not only returning to the romantic comedy genre for the first time since she starred in Monster In Law back in 2005 but also to mainstream Hollywood cinema for the first time in about as many years. As projects to mark a return to screen acting go, however, she could have done a lot better than The Back-Up Plan. Having already largely run its course in both the US and the UK, the film’s performance at the box office has been less than stellar, falling far short of her past successes in the romcom genre, and general word of mouth has been average at best. But, given that recent romantic comedies out of Hollywood have also been hugely underwhelming does The Back-Up Plan at least establish itself as a viable back-up plan in the case that there are no better options available for anyone wanting to see a decent romantic comedy?

For Zoe (Jennifer Lopez), waiting for the right man is taking too long. Determined to become a mother, she decides to go it alone. Then, on the day of her artificial insemination, Zoe meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin), a new man with real possibilities. But trying to nurture a budding relationship while concealing the early signs of pregnancy becomes a comedy of errors for Zoe and creates plenty of confusing signals for Stan. Understandably nervous about revealing the reason for her unpredictable behaviour, when Zoe finally tells Stan about her pregnancy, he does the decent thing and fully commits to his new partner and her baby bump. A series of comedy misadventures ensues as the couple try to get their heads around falling in love, getting married and having a baby – but not necessarily in that order!

The concept for The Back-Up Plan is not one without potential. After all, a similar concept has already been done and successfully so in the 2008 Tina Fey comedy Baby Mama. However, while the concept does indeed have potential, this film fails to deliver on any of it. The main culprits for this are director Alan Poul and screenwriter Kate Angelo, both of whom make their cinematic debuts with this film, their only experience to date being on television (the film is produced by television network turned film studio CBS Films, which goes some way to explain why they have been given the job of doing this film) and whose inexperience really ruins this film. The decision to start the film with an animated sequence is horrifically misjudged, the sequence being cheesy and corny and failing to fit in with all that follows but this is a minor flaw compared to what is yet to come. Simply put, both the writing and the direction are dire, the story meandering from one scene to the next, so much so that it feels more like a succession of scenes strung together rather than a well constructed narrative and the film’s attempts at raising laughs amount to little more than lame physical gags, wordplay, sexual innuendos and borderline gross out humour, none of which actually manages to raise the laughs it is supposed to. Only an old folks wedding sequence towards the end raises any titters of laughter but by this point you will likely have given up on the film. It doesn’t help that the acting isn’t up to much either. While Jennifer Lopez is reasonably entertaining in her role she is far from her best and she completely lacks chemistry with co-star Alex O’Loughlin, who, seemingly cast for his hunky good looks rather than acting ability, is bland and charmless for the most part, proving to be a very weak romantic interest. Other performers, meanwhile, such as Eric Christian Olsen, Anthony Anderson, Michaela Watkins and Noureen DeWulf, Tom Bosley and Linda Lavin are just wasted. So, overall, The Back-Up Plan is an extremely poorly made romantic comedy that I wouldn’t even recommend as a back-up plan in case the film you really want to see is sold out.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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