When the Bough Breaks

«Don't judge a book by its cover», but you may judge this film by its cover. A woman (surrogate) intends to split a wealthy successful couple. That's the cover, and also the entire storyline. Sounds booring? I agree, you've seen it all before, and getting inspiration from fatal attraction doesn't help either.

There is some decent talent involved. The premise for the story intrigued and sounded quite good, regardless of its lack of originality. The cover gave the sense it would be fairly suspenseful and interesting. 'When the Bough Breaks' was definitely not a film that sounded like it was going to be a disaster hearing about it.

It as a film is still not that much of a disaster too, there are merits here. The decent potential shown initially is sadly not sustained and generally not lived up to, so sadly 'When the Bough Breaks' is not a particularly good film either. As indicated just now, there was no initial bias against it or wanting to dislike it at all. Far from the truth, actually thought it had potential to be an unexceptional but not too bad film. It was a real shame it wasn't that, but it could have been so much worse.

'When the Bough Breaks' does have good elements. The acting from Regina Hall, Michael K. Williams and Morris Chestnut is better than average, Chestnut actually being quite good and suitably intensely brooding. Definitely the best thing about the film. The production values are not too cheap and the music is ominous without being too intrusive or obvious.

First impressions were a promising start that did intrigue and had some slow-burning suspense.

Sadly, that slow-burning suspense was far from sustained all the way through. 'When the Bough Breaks' generally lacks tension, danger and suspense, hurt by that it treads familiar ground so often that any surprises or anything new cannot be seen. The characters fail to be interesting and don't have much to make one endear to them, it was purposeful for some but don't think that was intent for all of them to be so. The direction does well with the visuals but in terms of the storytelling it fails, being pedestrian in a lot of the first half and then losing control in the second. It gets melodramatic in places and should have been much bolder, for a film with this concept it was rather tame.

Promising beginning aside, the first half is on the dull side. As said by others while the second half does pick up things start getting silly, rushed and implausible, some of it making one feel stupid, culminating in an ending that ends too suddenly and almost unfinished-like. The dialogue is cheesy and very difficult to take seriously, also not flowing naturally. Jaz Sinclair seemed out of her element and doesn't have the chops to carry the lead role and the film, while Theo Rossi is awful, no engagement whatsoever.

Concluding, not terrible but also not good. 4/10 Bethany Cox

"When does it become a kidnapping?" John (Chestnut) and Laura (Hall) Taylor are desperate for a baby, but are unable to conceive. After years of trying they finally have found a willing surrogate and things are falling into place. Little but little things start to change and the surrogate becomes obsessed with John and everything is threatened. This is a hard movie to review. First thing I will say is that the movie is tense and dramatic. The only downside is that this is the same type of movie that has been told over and over and over. Movies like Obsessed, No Good Deed, Perfect Man….all have the same idea and while they are all good the idea is getting old and to the point of being able to know exactly what will happen. That, for me, ruins a movie more than anything. Being able to stay one step ahead in a mystery movie ruins the enjoyment. Overall, not a bad movie, but needed something to make it seem original instead of repetitive and generic. I give this a low B-.

This movie is, I believe, a remake of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" from 1992. At least, a similar set of elements comes up in both movies, this time with a black cast rather than white. One way or another, it was a good movie, full of suspenseful points, and the acting was good. I liked it.

John and Laura Taylor cannot conceive a child, despite having made all efforts, and have resorted to hiring a surrogate mother, who is sweet (and seriously cute) and generally easy to like and love, a girl named Anna Walsh. But Anna isn't all she seems to be, living an unstable life and hiding her own deep and dark secrets as she develops inappropriate feelings for John, and her obsession with him turns dangerous and violent. What happens next? Buy a ticket and see the movie. LOL

PH

Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall star in this modern day Fatal Attraction-esque movie about a couple unable to have kids who welcome a surrogate into their home.

But of course this is Hollywood so nothing goes quite to plan and before you can say damn skippy, the soon to be mom becomes enamoured with the husband.

See that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact she's a complete psychotic, but how do you combat such a person when they're carrying your child?

We've seen this before, near enough this entire film to be honest but here it's done competently enough.

Morris Chestnut tends to always play the same brooding character (And does here) and Regina Hall is someone I cannot take seriously anymore after her zany stint in the Scary Movie franchise! I expect her to break out into some stereotypical satirical crazy expletive filled rant and find myself almost dissapointed that she doesn't.

When the Bough Breaks lacks in originality but does have its moments, sadly not enough to raise the bar above distinctly average.

The Good:

Morris Chestnut

Has a couple of interesting moments

The Bad:

Regina Hall

Seen it all before

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

When a girl hits on you keep it a secret from your wife, what could possibly go wrong?

Moral of the story, don't have kids.