The Back-Up Plan Synopsis: When Zoe tires of looking for Mr. Right, she decides to have a baby on her own. But on the day she’s artificially inseminated, she meets Stan, who seems to be just who she’s been searching for all her life. Now, Zoe has to figure out how to make her two life’s dreams fit with each other.
Convinced that Mister Right will never come along, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) decides to get inseminated. But fate has other plans for Zoe, and right after she leaves the procedure, she meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin).
They begin to see one another, though Zoe knows she must come clean and tell Stan she’s pregnant. Of course, the revelation shocks Stan, but he decides he wants to be with Zoe and does his best to support her while harboring some fears about the situation.
The Back-Up Plan is your typical J.Lo rom-com. It’s sweet and fluffy, with moments of humor here and there. Lopez has always been able to pull off the sweet, relatable heroine, and she plays it to perfection here. Alex O’Loughlin, I haven’t seen in much, but he does a fine job in The Back-Up Plan as a man thrust into a relationship with the woman of his dreams… who is also expecting a baby.
The downside? I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between Lopez and O’Loughlin, so it was difficult for me to root for them as a couple. Had there been a different casting choice for the role of Stan, maybe I would have enjoyed The Back-Up Plan a bit more. It’s not a terrible premise, and both of the leads are entertaining enough to watch… they didn’t work well enough together to make the romance believable.
The hilarious supporting cast, which includes Michaela Watkins, Melissa McCarthy, Maribeth Monroe, and Anthony Anderson, helps to keep the movie from sinking into a melodrama. I thoroughly enjoyed Zoe’s foray into a group of single moms; those particular scenes are probably the movie’s highlight. I’m not saying The Back-Up Plan is a terrible movie because it’s not! It’s the kind of movie you want to watch on a rainy day that doesn’t require much thought.
It could have been something more had the two leads had more chemistry. When you have a premise where a new lover is expecting a baby before the meet cute, you must understand why the relationship could work. I didn’t really buy into it. However! I’m glad I watched it (again). If you like the genre, and you like seeing J.Lo in her best genre, I would recommend The Back-Up Plan.
Watched: 02/28/2023
Notable Song: What is Love? by Jennifer Lopez
