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The Back-Up Plan

The Back-Up Plan

Comedy · Romance · 2010

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.

Movie details

The Back-Up Plan

“Fall in love, get married, have a baby. Not necessarily in that order.”

2010 Comedy · Romance 1h 46m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

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.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Back-Up Plan?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Alan Poul

Written by

Kate Angelo

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez

Zoe

Alex O'Loughlin

Alex O'Loughlin

Stan

Michaela Watkins

Michaela Watkins

Mona

Eric Christian Olsen

Eric Christian Olsen

Clive

Anthony Anderson

Anthony Anderson

Playground Dad

Noureen DeWulf

Noureen DeWulf

Daphne

Melissa McCarthy

Melissa McCarthy

Carol

Court is in session

Put The Back-Up Plan on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.