Como Fazer Bebês

Picture the scene - it's an office. Three ladies are sitting together, transfixed as a handsome young actor seductively recites a poem to them. When he has finished Joanna Lumley, with the sauciest grin you've ever seen on her face, says: "Darling, you're in serious danger of turning me back into a heterosexual!"

That scene alone is enough to see this film - I was in stitches for about 3 minutes!

I saw Maybe Baby the other evening with my friend Ruth, at a sneak preview. We both had very mixed feelings about it, agreeing that for the first half an hour it was fresh, funny and entertaining.

Maybe I'm biased as I am a major Joanna Lumley fan, but as soon as she disappears from sight, something goes slightly wrong and I began to look at my watch wondering when it would finish.

One of the biggest problems with this film is the casting of Joely Richardson as Lucy, the woman who is so desperate to conceive a baby. She is such an irritating character, not to mention soppy and bossy, that you really don't give a hoot if she DOES become pregnant. Personally, I would worry for the offspring's sanity with Lucy as a mother.

On the other hand, Hugh Laurie managed to be funny, charming, sympathetic and endearing, while Emma Thompson was great in her one and only scene as their hippie pal.

I practically closed my eyes whenever Rowan Atkinson (as Lucy's gynacologist) appeared onscreen - WHY does he always play these braindead characters? He is far more effective in the wily and acid-tongued roles like Blackadder.

It's a sweetly undemanding film, but if you are expecting anything like Notting Hill or Four Weddings & A Funeral, you'll be very disappointed.

Having read the comments I am surprised that this film hasn't gotten a more positive reception. Maybe is is just me but I love British comedy. Actually, I just love the British, dispite their dislike of us. The problem is that I can't understand half of what the characters are saying. It's weird, I love to hear Brits talk but for some reason or other it is like listening to a foreign language. I bought the DVD of "Maybe Baby" just so I can watch it until I get the dialogue down.

The story involves an infertile couple who go to extremes in an attempt to get pregnant though they are both healthy and individually capable of procreating. Joely Richardson is beautiful and talented and the main reason for my attraction to the movie. Much has been said about the bevy of British comedians in the film but I must admit to not being familiar with any of them. I particularly liked the character of the movie director. He cracked me up, though he was the most difficult to understand. I rate it at 7/10 until I get the dialogue down.

Well, let's see....

It's got Hugh Laurie in it, so it must be funny, right? And it's about making babies, so it must be very funny, right? And it's written by Ben Elton, so it has to be very, very funny, right? Well, the ingredients may be there but this christmas pudding is a stale pancake. As a brit, may I be honest and say that the term "British comedy" is very much a contradiction in terms these days.

Trouble is, all the 'in crowd' who make films here don't have a shred of genuine humor between them. For 'comedy' read 'stupidity' - so far as these idiots are concerned, they are interchangeable.

Sadly, only americans know how to do humor now. They don't know how to do much else, but they do know humor.

This is quite possibly one of the worst comedies I have ever seen. I don't know if I laughed once throughout the whole film! It was terrible. The story of a couple trying for a baby belongs in the world of soap opera and not the big screen. This is especially true when it is clear Ben Elton has nothing funny to write about his true life experience. DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM!!!

I went to the cinema to see this film and walked out of it after about 40 minutes because it was completely unfunny and seemed to be rapidly decending to an all-time low of mindless drivel. This film is an all-time turkey in my book, - it left me wondering what on earth Hugh Grant's career has come to. On the other hand, if you find frustrated impotent men hilariously amusing then you'll probably like it, but then there would have to be something very wrong in your mind somewhere - I suggest you see a psychotherapist. I admit that the 'joke' is reasonably well executed on the first occasion it is used, and it didn't particularly bother me, but when 40 minutes later the film still hadn't moved on from the same, by now, very stale old joke, it began to become very irksome and before long I couldn't bear to sit and watch any more of this mindless dross and just left the cinema. It definately ranks as one of the worst movies I have ever seen for all the worst reasons. Tiresome and unfunny drivel.