Thank God Jennifer Lopez (Maid in Manhattan, Bordertown) was born with so much charisma that people want to smell like her. If she wasn’t the kind of woman who is so popular she’s still making movies after Gigli, then The Back-Up Plan would have been a complete and utter disaster. Thanks to J-Lo it’s merely stupid and rarely funny, while occasionally endearing. Non Lopez fans can sit this one out.
Jenny From The Block plays Zoe, a pet shop owner who’s given up on finding a man, and decided to go ahead and make a child. But as fate would have it, she runs into Mr Right just as she walks out the door from her artificial insemination using donor sperm. Mr Right in this movie is Stan (Aussie Alex O’Loughlin, Three Rivers, August Rush), a dreamy cheese maker. Cheese makers of the world rejoice, you have a new poster boy. Will Zoe’s back-up plan foil her chance at happiness with Stan? Is Stan ready to have a baby 9 months into a relationship? And why is there a disabled dog hovering in every second frame of this movie? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Lopez is so charming and naturally stunning, she gets away with a lot in this. It’s also not too much of a performance stretch for her. O’Loughlin takes a while to hit his straps after an oddly disjointed meet-cute that forces his character to essentially stalk Zoe. After that he does relatively well with what he’s given.
The script manages to be lazy at one point and tries too hard at the next. We open with a voice-over from Zoe, an internal monologue in which she spells out why she’s decided to have a baby by herself. But as we see close up shots of Lopez’s pondering features while hearing her thoughts, you have to wonder why she’s telling herself something she should already know. Is it because the writers think we’re too stupid to be given this information in a more subtle way? Next thing you know, she’s meeting the love of her life in a painfully lengthy series of exchanges. Given the fact that screenwriter Kate Angelo has admirably chosen to play with traditional Romcom structures, it feels unnecessary for her to hamstring her leads with a few extra, superficial obstacles.
I can only hope no one takes any aspect of Zoe’s pregnancy experience as an educational tool. In the space of 4 minutes, she finds out she’s pregnant, craves food so badly she starts furtively shoving stew in her mouth, is overwhelmed by sexual desire, then throws up. It’s pregnancy on crack. There’s also a birth scene in a wading pool that defies description. On the other hand, it’s great that several characters take the time to desensitize the use of the word ‘vagina’.
Several sub plots have been carved out of the film in the editing suite, and you can still see the scars from this. Eric Christian Olsen (Fired Up) was clearly meant to be in love with J-Lo’s character, but we see no build or pay-off from this fact. Other supporting actors do well, with Robert Klein nailing the doctor who’s clearly seen it all, and Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls, Samantha Who?) showing everyone what comic timing really looks like as the leader of a single parent support group.
Overall this is mindless fare for Romcom diehards. It beats The Bounty Hunter, and slots in between The Ugly Truth and 27 Dresses on the Heigl Scale. It’s trying to be new, without feeling in any way fresh. I suppose it’s the thought that counts.
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O’Loughlin, Michaela Watkins, Eric Christian Olsen, Melissa McCarthy
Director: Alan Poul
The Back Up Plan is out in cinemas on May 20th.
All images from CIA
