When the Bough Breaks

"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-.

«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.

Sad to see stars like Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall sign on for such a rehashed and unrealistic plot. Who's writing this trash, anyways, people who have never talked to anyone in a real marriage? That whole, "I think she's got a 'thing' for you. giggle-hee-hee, It's okay, I think it's cute" said no woman EVER regarding some younger woman who her husband has already stated he finds physically attractive. Such bad decisions by the main characters when it was obvious things were going south made it easy to not care what happened to them. And that whole, "I can't have a baby...I'm not a real woman" quote by Hall's character...puh-leease! Can we stop with that reproductive-normative mess, like motherhood is the be-all-end-all for every woman? ~Sigh~ Chestnut and Hall deserved a much better script and a much better plot for their level of talent. They each have been in the business far too long to be starring in a storyline that is so overdone and repetitive. Nothing to see here folks...

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

Some people on here really want to be oppressed. There is nothing "racist" about this film, LMAO. The actor who plays the abusive boyfriend, Theo Rossi, is not even white, so please stop complaining. Also, "When The Bough Breaks" was clearly marketed as a Black Thriller, so if you dislike the .0001% of movies that actually aren't white male- centric, I suggest you don't watch them. Just A thought.

This a good movie, with great acting by all three of the leads. Jaz SInclair and Regina Hall are the unsung heroes of this film. I find Jaz Sinclair incredibly sexy. There was something very magnetizing and intense about her performance. Even during the character's most brutal moments, I still felt the urge to protect Anna's sweet face. (I am saying this as a straight woman, btw)

"When the Bough Breaks" is probably not a movie I'd see in theaters, but it is worth the watch nonetheless.