Film Review: The Back-Up Plan (2010)
Among the many genres that populate modern Hollywood, none relies so heavily upon cliché as the romantic comedy. One can typically predict not merely the ending but the principal plot points within minutes of the opening credits. The Back-Up Plan, a 2010 vehicle for Jennifer Lopez, proves no exception—despite a premise that initially hints at something rather more subversive.
Lopez portrays Zoe, a successful pet shop proprietor entering her thirties who confronts the unwelcome realisation that she has yet to encounter "Mr Right." With her biological clock ticking, she elects to pursue the eponymous "Plan B": artificial insemination. No sooner has she undergone the procedure than she encounters Stan (Alex O'Loughlin), a charming cheesemaker who appears to embody everything she has sought in a partner. The pair strike up a rapport, yet complications arise when Zoe discovers she is pregnant—with twins fathered by an anonymous donor rather than her new suitor.
On the surface, this setup suggests a potentially fresh, feminist-inflected approach to the rom-com formula—one that acknowledges the biological realities women face and the modern alternatives available to them. Alas, Kate Angelo's screenplay rapidly descends into the genre's most tiresome conventions: the contrived "meet cute," eccentric supporting characters, and a manufactured lovers' quarrel destined to be predictably resolved. The film, securing a PG-13 rating, presents itself as a sanitised Hollywood fairy tale bearing scant relation to authentic experience, despite its numerous references to bodily functions and the messier aspects of pregnancy.
The Back-Up Plan functions as something of an antithesis to Judd Apatow's Knocked Up—not merely because the pregnancy here is planned rather than accidental, but through its self-censorship and refusal to engage with the genuine complexities of its subject matter. Where Apatow's film, for all its flaws, permitted its characters to exist in something approaching recognisable reality, Alan Poul's direction reduces Zoe's predicament to a series of sitcom scenarios.
The film's most grievous failing, however, lies in the complete absence of chemistry between its leads. Lopez, generally an engaging screen presence, appears game enough, but O'Loughlin delivers a pallid, unconvincing performance that renders the central romance difficult to credit. Occasional moments of genuine wit surface—Anthony Anderson's brief turn as a fretful father at a playground provides a welcome spark—but these prove too fleeting to salvage the enterprise.
Sixteen years after The Back-Up Plan's release, its premise has acquired fresh relevance in light of recent debates concerning women's career ambitions and family planning. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's announcement this month that she is freezing her eggs has reignited discussions about the impossible choices women, particularly those in demanding professions, continue to face.
The film's glib resolution, wherein Zoe secures both career success and domestic bliss with minimal friction, appears increasingly fantastical against this backdrop. For all its faults, The Back-Up Plan at least raised questions that remain pertinent—however superficial its answers may have been.
Rating: 3/10
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