Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes and clips and puts it all in perspective.
High class people have high class problems. It's not easy for a wife to live in a secluded neighborhood with a hunky husband and a super nice pool because people are looking to get in on that action, and when I say people, I mean the surrogate mom who has agreed to carry her baby.
Besides the derivative story, my real problem with When the Bough Breaks is that this couple really hasn't vetted their surrogate well. It's good to be trusting and open, we can be too cynical sometimes – but we can't see this woman coming? You can't see she's totally into Morris Chestnut? She's undressing him with her entire soul whenever she looks upon him, and she stares daggers of jealousy at everyone else. She's so distracted, she needs to write “baby” in lipstick on her stomach so she can remember she's carrying a baby. Is she always this intense? Even when she's having an afternoon snack? At one point, you have to stop lusting after someone and have a yogurt.
She's just about the most obvious stalker ever. Who is she kidding with her hiding places? “I thought you'd never find me behind this corner or this pane of glass!” Stop it, you crazy person!
I see some other small problems. I like that they use a slow version of Brandy & Monica's “That Boy is Mine,” but let's be serious. Morris Chestnut has never been a “boy” in his life. He sprung from the eyebrows of Zeus in all his broad chested splendor.
Also, I think they overdo it with the water imagery. This might be news to Morris Chestnut, but water often represents birth or rebirth. Not coincidentally, there's a lot of shots of the women in pools and bath tubs. It gets downright silly when the characters visit an aquarium for the sake of symbolism. You can't have a conversation about marital transgression that comfortably when you are in an underwater tunnel observing multicolored fish.
It's not likely I will see this movie but I don't want to stop you. Tell me whether you liked it, please.