When the Bough Breaks

I liked it. At first, I thought maybe it was a Lifetime chick flick. But, it was actually on HBO. It had good build up, although you kind of knew what was going to happen. The story line was pretty good and it kept me interested.

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.

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

"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-.

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...