When the Bough Breaks

Image Source

When the Bough Breaks centers on a couple (Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall) that can’t get pregnant. As a result, they hire a surrogate mother (newcomer Jaz Sinclair) to have their baby. She moves in with the couple. At first, she seems nice enough. However, she goes crazy, and starts trying to seduce Chestnut’s character. When you hear (or read) that premise, you get an idea of where the story is going to go. When the Bough Break brings absolutely nothing new to the table. The characters don’t feel like characters, only stereotypes. The writing on this movie is terrible, and does disservice to actors Morris Chestnut and Theo Rossi, who are talented, and absolutely don’t deserve this movie. I also feel like newcomer Jaz Sinclair could’ve shined had her first movie been something better than this. It’s funny because I could actually see the talents of these two actors shine through at moments, as well as miss Sinclair’s potential. There are points where I feel like I’m supposed to believe that the main characters are intelligent. Well, the wife is a clueless, oblivious moron. When Chestnut’s character starts bringing up some legitimate red flags, she shrugs them off. Almost immediately after this movie started, I was ready for it to be over. The directing is serviceable, I guess. I’ve seen better this year, but I’ve also seen a lot worse. Overall, some of the actors are trying to give good performances. However, the writing and directing just undercut any chance the good performers might otherwise stand.

2 / 10