Rated PG-13 for sexual content including references, some crude material and language.
Directed by Alan Poul (only TV shows)
Starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin
TODD’S WORD: I wish I had a back-up plan half way through this movie.
After years of dating, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) has decided waiting for the right one is taking too long. Determined to become a mother, she commits to a plan, makes an appointment and decides to go it alone. On the day of her artificial insemination, Zoe meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) – a man with real possibilities. But Zoe fears that he’ll bail the moment he discovers her secret.
JONATHAN’S WORD: So will he? Will he bail?
TODD’S WORD: The suspense is killing me…and based on the movie poster I’m going to say…
JONATHAN’S WORD: Don’t ruin it for everyone!
TODD’S WORD: Ha. I guess they’ll have to watch the movie and find out. Or… not.
Let’s be honest. Being told the ending to The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects is ruining a movie…
JONATHAN’S WORD: Or The Book of Eli…
TODD’S WORD: Exactly. Finding out the ending to this movie doesn’t ruin anything. Besides the film makers ruined this one all on their own.
JONATHAN’S WORD: I didn’t hate the movie with the passion that you did. I saw it with my wife and we weren’t bored… it just wasn’t our favorite. I think some people might find it to be a mildly entertaining date flick.
TODD’S WORD: Let me cut right to it. I found Jennifer Lopez pretty unbelievable in this movie. Not so much the professional who wants to have a family – that was fine. It was the goofy, I-better-walk-with-my-knees-together-so-I-get-pregnant character that was pretty annoying.
JONATHAN’S WORD: She’s been in way better films: An Unfinished Life, Out of Sight…
TODD’S WORD: Then there is the whole way sex, relationships and fertility are handled. It just wasn’t funny for me.
JONATHAN’S WORD: I have to disagree there. My wife and I were really laughing during the scene where their friend was giving birth in the baby pool. Hard to not laugh at that. But yes, The Back Up Plan didn’t really connect all the dots.
TODD’S WORD: I’ve had a lot of friends who have joked about having a back-up plan of their own. They say things like, “If we aren’t married in 5 years, let’s marry each other”. Most of the time, it’s just talk. I somehow wish this movie never got past the “just talk” phase of production. It’s a Skip It.
JONATHAN’S WORD: I didn’t think it was great, but I’d probably watch it if it's free.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Kids would probably be bored. And the sexual references and crude humor are over the top at times.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
Q: What was the theme (or the message) of this movie?
A: The questions The Back Up Plan raised mostly revolved around family. What does “family” mean? How is a family made? How is love best expressed within a family? Etc.
Q: What can we—as serious Christ-followers—take away from this movie?
A: If one idea was presented throughout the film it’s that there are plenty of alternatives and options to God’s plan for families these days. None of them are any good, but there are still lots of them.
For instance, instead of praying and searching for God’s plan for our families, we can gamble by asking people for sex or dating certain people just because they are attractive. Further, when it comes time to have kids, it’s not necessarily within the confines of marriage between a man and a woman; you can just go down to a clinic and “have” a baby right by yourself.
Neither of these is what God had in mind when He created the concept of family.
Q: How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
A: We need to remember that “family” was one of God’s ideas. The question of who we marry, and whether we have kids or not, are two of the most significant decisions we can ever make. God needs to weigh in on both of them!
When it came time for Isaac to get married, the situation was put in God’s hands. Look how much prayer plays a role in his story. (Read about it in Genesis 24.)
Finally, each time God gave the command to “populate the earth,” He was speaking to people who were in a marriage. That important fact cannot be overlooked!
By acting on these two truths, we can avoid “rolling the dice” like Zoe had to in the movie.
