As regular readers know, romantic comedies (rom-coms) are one of my least favourite genres of movie.  Normally trite, predictable, and full of cliché, rom-coms generally follow some sort of formula that resembles nothing someone would see in real life.

However, the official wife of this reviewer loves rom-coms, and was thrilled to see that I was assigned The Back-up Plan to review.  To her, the only thing that can make a rom-com even better is if it involves babies.  And this film is a rom-com that involves babies.

So with a feeling akin to how one feels when facing a large pile of laundry, I saw the viewing of this film as a chore.

Film

No, you did not misread that.  Yes, I actually liked this film, and found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions.  As I described it to the official wife, this is a rom-com that is just crude and offensive enough to keep a guy’s attention.  Heady praise indeed!

The film’s premise is pretty straightforward.  Girl wants a baby, girl gets artificially inseminated, girl gets pregnant, girl then meets “the guy”.  Hilarity ensues.

There are a number of things that do make this move stand out above others in its genre.  Firstly, the two lead actors are both given centre stage throughout the film, with very few supporting actors, and a limited number of tertiary characters.  This allows the viewer to see the relationship develop between the main characters, without the meddling interference that secondary characters often have in these films.

Secondly, the film is extremely well cast.  The world-class-lovely Jennifer Lopez has a perfect mix of vulnerability, quirkiness, and realism as Zoe.  The charming Alex O’Loughlin plays her beau Stan with an equal blend of quirkiness and charm.  And the cameos by Tom Bosley and Linda Lavin remind us of just how old we’ve all gotten.

On the negative side, this is a lightweight film, and sometimes why the characters are doing what they are doing is not apparent.  However, some of the things they do do are quite funny, including Stan finding his pre-parental sounding board at a local park, and the pregnant Zoe enjoying some stew.

Looking objectively at the film, I believe the jokes make a lot more sense to someone who is in a relationship, and who has gone through the whole pregnancy/childbirth phenomenon.  If you don’t fit this category, then you may want to steer clear of this one, as the jokes won’t resonate with you.

Video

This movie had one of the cleanest video presentations I have seen in some time.  With minimal grain, excellent contrast, sharp edges, and no hint of softness or artifacting, this picture looked superb.  In fact, the picture was so superb, it highlighted all the flaws in Linda Lavin and Tom Bosley’s makeup.

Bright light shots were nicely resolved, dark shots were free of excessive grain and black crush, and colors (though not popping) were very pleasant and natural looking.  Overall, one of the better video presentations I’ve seen recently.  

Audio

This is not the most demanding of audio material, but certainly it was managed well.  Dialog at all points in the film was clear and crisp through the centre channel.  The LFE channel was used sparingly, though mixed well when used, especially when some up tempo soundtrack numbers kicked in.

Of note was that the surrounds did have a nice amount of ambient sound, somewhat rare for a film in this genre.

I am comfortable in stating this is actually the best mixed sound I have heard on a Blu-ray rom-com to date.

Special Features

On many non-special edition Blu-rays, less and less special features are showing up.  The Back-up Plan is no exception to this, with a fairly skinny set of extras.  Just over sixteen minutes of HD extras are there, including some deleted scenes, and a short “the making of” featurette.  Other than that, there is a movie IQ feature (something I do find intrusive and not much fun personally), BD Live, and a whack of trailers.

Final Thoughts

I was genuinely surprised that I enjoyed this movie, though possibly it was because my expectations were so abysmally low going in.  However, it was surprisingly difficult to determine a recommendation for this one.

Even though I have given a “Buy It” recommendation for lower-scoring movies, I do give this film a “rent it”.  Despite a decently funny story and excellent acting, the disc does have limited rewatchability.