The Unseen Movie Review - The Back-up Plan

By Robert Dixter Apr 23, 2010, 14:58 GMT

After years of dating, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) has decided waiting for the right one is taking too long. Determined to become a mother, she commits to a plan, makes an appointment and decides to go it alone. On the day of her artificial insemination, Zoe meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) – a man with real possibilities. Trying to nurture a budding relationship and hide the early signs of pregnancy becomes a comedy ...more

Jenny from the block, where ya been?  I used to see your face on every magazine and watch you canoodle (that just sounds dirty, but it’s one of those things you can only do if you’re famous) with your fiancé Ben Affleck.  We used to refer to you as Bennifer and then wonder why the media was so lazy that they couldn’t write “Ben and Jennifer”.  It’s a good thing you guys broke up because Bennifer was not as good a name as Brangelina.  Do you think those couples ever got together for dinner and discussed their nicknames and argued over who had a better one?

Brad Pitt: Bennifer is a joke. We all know Brangelina is a more comprehensive name.

Ben Affleck: Bennifer rolls off the tongue better.

Angelina Jolie: Every time someone uses the name Brangelina a drop of clean water is donated to a third world country and a tree is saved in the rainforest.

Tom Cruise: What’s up everybody?

Brad, Ben and Angelina: Shut up Tomkat!

Jenny eventually left Ben Affleck (but probably kept that engagement ring if she was smart) and married Marc Anthony.  Then she had twins and dropped out of sight for a few years to raise her kids until they were old enough to know the difference between her and the nanny.  Now that they don’t call the nanny “Mommy” anymore but refer to her as “Servant”, Jen can go back to work. 

Before she disappeared, Lopez had developed quite a reputation for delivering semi decent romantic comedies that were not huge hits, but always delivered adequate box office (see Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner.)  In fact she was sort of the female Matthew McConnaughey except without the Texas accent and she managed to keep her shirt on whenever a camera was around.  Now that she’s back in the public eye she’s a different person than Jenny from the Block.  She’s a mom and seems more mature and grown up.  Her new film is called The Back-up Plan and it’s about a woman who conceives through artificial insemination and then meets the man of her dreams (it’s just like real life, sigh.)  She also completed a new album but was recently dropped by her label (which means the album is awful or it is so good it’s not meant for human ears) so who knows when it will be released.

The thing I’ve always liked about Jennifer, aside from the fact that her rear end can literally hold enough books on it to deserve its own Dewey Decimal system, is that she seems very personable on film and in interviews.  She comes across as a woman girls want to hang with, guys want to date and inmates want to write letters to.  She can also act in the right vehicle with the right director.  Out of Sight was a great film made even better by awesome performances from Jenny and George Clooney.  It’s too bad Steven Soderbergh doesn’t direct romcoms.

Why do all recent romcoms have to have a gimmick?  No one can fall in love anymore and navigate that path in a real way.  There’s always a hook, like in The Bounty Hunter.  This time it’s that Jenny is pregnant and then finds true love.  I wonder how the Vatican’s film critic reviewed this film, “Fine performances by all involved but I still give the movie zero mitres since they’re all headed to Hell.”  Whatever happened to movies like Annie Hall?  The thing that made those funny was that they seemed so real.

I’m rooting for Jenny.  I’ve always liked her and thought she was great in Out of Sight.  I think she should stop looking to headline films with dumb concepts and try to take a supporting role in a great movie.  It would also give her more time to spend with her twins.