Baby on Board

Though armed with a surprisingly personable cast, Baby on Board quickly establishes itself as a seriously underwhelming comedic endeavor that suffers from an almost total lack of genuine laughs – as scripters Michael Hamilton-Wright and Russell Scalise place a consistent emphasis on jokes and gags of an eye-rollingly lame nature (eg a character farts repeatedly during an important board meeting). The movie follows well-to-do couple Angela (Heather Graham) and Curtis (Jerry O’Connell) as they learn that they’re going to have a baby, with problems ensuing as, thanks to a series of wacky misunderstandings, Curtis becomes convinced that he’s not the father and Angela becomes convinced that Curtis is having an affair. The movie subsequently follows the pair as they spend the next nine months giving one another the silent treatment, thus forcing Angela and Curtis to individually cope with their problems in as hopelessly broad a manner as one could envision (eg Angela covers for her pregnancy by telling her boss that she’s suffering from a glandular problem). Director Brian Herzlinger has infused Baby on Board with a low-rent atmosphere that’s exacerbated by the screenplay’s frustratingly plotless sensibilities, although there’s little doubt that it’s the movie’s absence of authentic attributes that effectively cements its downfall. Hamilton-Wright and Scalise pepper the proceedings with a whole mess of hackneyed elements that become increasingly tough to stomach, with the woefully stereotypical supporting characters (eg Angela’s sassy gay assistant (Brian Sills’ Raphy), Curtis’ lecherous best friend (John Corbett’s Danny), etc, etc) emblematic of the filmmakers’ relentlessly paint-by-numbers approach. Graham and O’Connell’s respective efforts at infusing the beyond-stale material with even brief instances of spontaneity fall completely flat, and it ultimately goes without saying that Baby on Board is unlikely to pass muster with even the most forgiving romcom aficionado.

*1/2 out of ****