4/23/10

The Back-up Plan

The career of Jennifer Lopez ("El Cantante") is a mystery to me. She's pretty enough, she's certainly successful, and she doesn't lack ambition, but for some reason, to me, her movies just never seem very good.

In "The Back-up Plan" she plays a determined, ambitious business woman whose biological clock is ticking. Rather then spend any time worrying about it, she decides to have a child and is inseminated.

Naturally on that very day (!) she meets the man of her dreams, played by Alex O'Loughlin ("Whiteout"), who runs a goat-cheese shop in her neighborhood. The fact that these two supposed lovebirds generate absolutely NO heat on screen was exacerbated by obvious personality flaws in each character: He has commitment issues and she is arbitrary and capricious.

I found this predictable non-starter to be objectionable on many levels, but particularly for the graphic depictions of pelvic exams, insemination procedures and a truly repugnant scene with a woman giving birth in a child's wading pool with a gang of women chanting and drumming their support.

Too much information!