Third times the charm! What do I mean by that? Well if you haven't noticed, for the last 3 years, on this very weekend, Hollywood has been giving us thrillers starring A-list Black actors and actresses. September 12, 2014 we got Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson in No Good Deed. I love me some Idris, and I love me some Taraji too! But I think we all know the film was a bit of a bust, even managing to get a 10% on the tomatometer. Then September 11, 2015 came around. Remember what we got? Michael Ealy, Sanaa Lathan, and Morris Chestnut in The Perfect Guy. It wasn't as bad as No Good Deed, but it wasn't all that great either. And well, the tomatometer gave it 19%, though we know that tomatometer can't always be trusted. It deserved more than a 19%. But anyway, then we come to this year, September 9, 2016. Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall in When the Bough Breaks, and "Mama we made it!" And before I say why it was so good (because it was really good), I want to be sure to note that both The Perfect Guy and When the Bough Breaks are part of the 3-picture deal Morris Chestnut made with Screen Gems as an actor and producer!! I can't wait for The Syndicate!
The cinematography was well done, and I liked the way the film tried to capture various aspects of New Orleans. There was the aerial view like you're flying into the city, the city view from John Taylor's (Morris Chestnut, Rosewood, The Perfect Guy) law firm, the beautiful home the couple renovated after Laura Taylor (Regina Hall , About Last Night, Think Like a Man) inherited it, John's lake home, the home shared by Anna Walsh (Jaz Sinclair, Paper Towns) and Mike Mitchell (Theo Rossi, Sons of Anarchy) and the Mardi Gras-esque crowd outside of it in one scene.
The acting was great, as expected. Slight spoiler here, but when John had to pretend to be into Anna, Chestnut played it in such a way that you could see how someone like Anna might fall for it and at the same time see that it was quite different from how he interacted with Laura. It was not just the way he looked when Anna could not see his face, but even the way he kissed her (I warned you of slight spoilers). The kisses were somehow both visibly forced and yet believable enough for me to believe Anna would fall for it.
Jaz Sinclair held her own next to Chestnut and Hall (She also reminded me of Yara Shahidi of Black-ish...A LOT. Which is a compliment). She did an excellent job of revealing to the audience what Anna was thinking without even saying a word. There were several scenes where you can follow Anna's transition mentally simply by the look in Sinclair's eyes! And this is of course intentional. In one of the film's first scenes Laura comments on the sincerity she sees in Anna's eyes in the video of her interview to become a surrogate mother, and the scenes I'm referencing purposefully closed in on the look on Anna's face. Prior to living with the Taylors, Anna goes from being shy and quiet to long glances at Laura and John that suggest she's beginning to admire Laura and maybe even envy her to some extent. But then, further along after moving in with them, the looks begin to focus on John in an obsessive sort of way. And of course her actions also reveal this. The first time she asks him for coffee is shortly after the scene where she was looking on as the Taylors shared a moment after John gave Laura a cup of coffee. And so when Anna later asks for coffee it is an indication that she wants what Laura received from John, not just the coffee but the way he catered and loved on Laura. Later, when she asks about coffee, she doesn't ask for some, rather she asks if there's any coffee. She's also in a much more revealing outfit, and Laura is out of town. The intentions have clearly changed, and it's more about her obsession with John than her wanting to be Laura or have what Laura has.
And of course we see Anna's psychotic side come out, though it was unleashed a bit earlier than expected and in a way I didn't quite expect. I won't spoil it beyond saying John and Laura were not in the scene. And while we did get some background on Anna's history, thanks to Roland (Michael K. Williams, The Land, The Wire), I'm not sure it fully explained Anna's behavior. Before going on, I do want to point out Williams had a lot more screen time than expected (and I loved it!), though Romany Malco (Think Like a Man) had a lot less screen time than I expected.
Now while I was expecting a climactic girl fight between Anna and Laura, it never really happened. It did get violent between the pair, but not in the way I expected. Now I get why Laura wouldn't fight back against the woman pregnant with her last embryo, but I needed her to get some licks in during the final scenes at the lake house. Though I suppose she got way more than some licks in. I won't spoil it for you though. I do find it interesting that the film chose to have all of Anna's fight scenes with men (other than when she attacked Laura while pregnant with her child), especially when linking her mental issues with the fact that she was sexually abused by her adoptive father who she murdered as a teenager.
To be honest, this made me a bit uneasy at times. The film obviously got to the point where the audience felt Anna may have needed some hands laid on her (despite not condoning violence, but it was a movie), but the hands never belonged to Laura. Rather, they belonged to Mike, more than once, the third time (second time on screen) being even more awkward in my theater when I heard a couple of women asking for Mike to hit her. This despite Anna having done nothing to Mike for him to even validly be upset with her, again I'm saying be upset with b/c nothing would be valid for him to lay a hand on her. But at the time, the reason those women wanted Anna to be hit was because of things she did to the Taylors. In fact, Mike at that point had beat her once at home and in another scene, while painfully grabbing her neck, had told her she was going to have do what he said to get money out of the Taylors and then ultimately sell their child to someone else in Arizona!! So these women yelling at the screen for Mike to hit Anna, were women who were upset with what Anna did to the Taylors and also aware that Mike had it in him to hit Anna. So they felt it was a safe time and space to yell out for a man to hit a woman on the screen. And I didn't like seeing it, because he did indeed put his hands on her (again!), but I also didn't like that the film put the audience in a position where some would be asking a man to hit a woman (especially when it's not even him defending himself from her attacking or trying to kill him).
Anna even gets into a physical altercation with John in one of the last scenes. I would have much preferred it to have been a moment for Laura to be able to get her hands on Anna for once, the woman who tried to break up her home, steal her baby, and also physically attacked and knocked out Laura! Anna had given birth before the final scenes, so there would have been nothing to hold Laura back this time. And when Anna momentarily had John down, I just knew Laura would get out the car and finish her off. But that's not how it happened. Instead, Anna got beat up again by another man. Hashing this out is actually making me rethink my position on the film a bit. The film's choice to go in this direction is certainly something to ponder.
Hard to move past that now, but I will try. So obviously the film is mostly about Anna, and somewhat about her wanting John. So while Laura did have more screen time than I expected, I don't feel her character really had the opportunity to showcase all of Hall's talent. Perhaps the film wasn't meant to do that. After three miscarriages, and with only one embryo left, Laura wants her baby no matter what. And though some in the audience didn't seem to quite understand Laura's position, at times shouting to let Anna go and just adopt a child, I get where Laura is coming from. That's her child, biologically. And beyond wanting to have your child, at the very least one should understand not wanting your child raised by a psycho. And while I appreciate her not being fooled by Anna's lies about an affair with John, and yet pointing out John still should have told her what was going on and what Anna was doing, her coming to those conclusions in about 60 seconds was a bit much to fully believe. I mean, Anna did a pretty believable job of proclaiming they were having an affair (I won't spoil the scene with more details), and the pair certainly had the opportunity with Laura's travels. In fact she walked in on the pair when returning home early from a trip, and they were in what was almost a very awkward predicament for John. Add to that the fact that early on in the film Laura rejected John's advances. Though I suppose this may actually match up with Laura's character. It's a woman who moved a beautiful 21-year-old woman into her home with her husband, and the couple also shared scenes where they discussed having worked hard to maintain their relationship. So perhaps there's some details in their marriage that made them know John would not go behind Laura's back and have an affair. Though if there are such details, the audience never learned what they were.
Now, there was some predictability in the film. Slight spoilers coming. You knew she was going to go Fatal Attraction on Laura's cat early in the film, though it comes much later. And you knew something was going to happen with those shotguns the moment you saw them in the lake house. But overall, I have to say there were definitely some unexpected twists in the story, or I should say the story went down paths I didn't fully expect. And for that, I appreciate the story line. It could have been girl becomes surrogate, girl becomes obsessed with replacing the wife, girl leaves no good boyfriend to be with the husband, husband rejects girl's advances (and maybe gives in once in a regrettable moment, depending on the movie and the husband), wife finds out no thanks to the husband, wife kicks girl's butt and somehow still gets the baby. But that's not quite the story here. There's definitely some of that, but there's some extra stuff in there like unexpected slasher scenes and husband and wife plotting affairs (Though I suspect another plan could have easily been to just prove she was a crazy murderer who shouldn't have the rights to a child, and then petition to have the child given to the biological parents instead of put in the system. But no one thought of that, not even John who is a lawyer). So that coupled with the surrogate situation, makes this a more unique take on the obsessed with a married man thriller. Though I must also admit, the film was more drama with a touch of suspense than thriller. There were a few edge of the seat moments, but not many, unfortunately.
The film made some interesting choices, some good and some questionable. But at the end of the day, it was definitely it's own film with it's own story, the film was shot well, and the actors did a fantastic job!
7.5/10