“When the bough breaks the cradle will fall. And down will come ratings movie and all.” This past weekend some friends and I went to see the highly anticipated film When the Bough Breaks, with Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall. Chestnut and Hall play as John and Laura Taylor, a power couple who seem to have the perfect lives. They live in a beautiful home that Laura inherited from her grandmother, John is on his way to making partner at his job and Laura is a head chef at a prestigious restaurant. But there’s one thing the Taylors want more than anything else, a baby. After Laura’s three miscarriages, the couple has one embryo left and they choose the gorgeously sweet and innocent Anna to be their surrogate, but boy does she have them fooled. In the beginning everything seems peachy but later things take a turn for the worst. Anna becomes obsessed with John and threatens to endanger the baby, her dark past is exposed and John has to do whatever is necessary to keep their baby safe.
The rest of the film followed the basic “Lifetime movie” storyline. However, besides the movie’s predictability the acting was decent although the audience did burst into laughter during some scenes that were meant to be serious. I’m sure a lot of women, including myself, wanted more from Regina Hall in she and Anna’s fighting scene. She’d learn a lot from watching Beyoncé’s fight in her movie Obsessed. Unfortunately, When the Bough Breaks didn’t live up to its hype from the previews and The Seattle Times feels it failed to “deliver”. It’s a decent film that will keep you entertained but its definitely a story we’ve seen before.