The Backup Plan was to shoot myself

So I was a very lucky lady and was given tickets to a film premier which I attended last night. I wasn't sure what the film was going to be, but then I found out it was the new Jennifer Lopez film - The Backup Plan. Now i'm not really a 'chick flick' kind of girl they are all so terribly dull and predictable, but love actually turned out to be a great film, and I've got a soft spot for sex in the city so I went in trying my very best to be positive and believe it was going to be good.

It wasn't

Looking back I should have researched the movie before I went to see it. I'll try not to spoil the almost lazy ending of the film for you so I will give you an idea based only on information given in the trailer. What I will say is that ruining it so you couldn't see it may have been one of the best gifts I could give you this year but some people never listen so here we go. The Backup Plan is about a woman who can't find a man but wants to have a baby anyway. She goes to get artificially inseminated and exactly following the deed she jumps in a cab and some handsome stranger jumps in too, it is raining the end. Ok so i'm not doing a great job of curtailing my bitterness in this blog, but it was so painful to watch I feel I would be doing a public service if I stopped it being released in Canada full stop.

I have a problem with women being objectified as crazy commitment freaks, whose main life goal is to have a baby and fall in love. I don't care if it represents a majority, it's ruining it for normal people. I myself am surrounded by strong and intelligent women who mostly want to drink lots and lots and have fun. I'm not saying women don't want to have families, I'm just suggesting their priority is to be happy and if that involves children great but if it doesn't that's great too. The movie is a collection of cliches held together by moments of slip-on-a-banana style comedy. This kind of humour is like looking at the shadow of funny, you recognize it but it just isn't the real thing. I know this is what chick flicks are about, they are designed to show off the kind of love women think exist. It is that kind of, I hate you leave me alone, oh wait here you are at my house lets fall in love formula that could never really happen.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking I don't believe in love, or put me in some weird feminism box that I don't belong in. I'm a huge believer in love. I truly believe that people can care for one another and share a life together and be happy, I just think love should be an extra in your life not a necessity. You don't have a baby because you need something to love, you have one because you have love you can share.

Oh god I've gone mushy, if I carry on this way I'm going to end up writing a chick flick before the week is over. The best love story ever written has got to be between Tim and Dawn in the original office. Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais had it just right. Here were two people who managed to find fun in the most tedious things, they were never going to have these huge dramatic lives, or fall into each others arms in the rain. They just knew if they were together they would be happy. It was beautifully written and executed so delicately, it felt so familiar.

So I guess my point is don't go see the movie, take the 15 dollars it would cost, go rent yourself the office on DVD and watch that instead, and don't worry about how much you owe me for this irrevocably good advise, you can just buy me a bottle next time you see me

hugs and kisses

xxx m xxx