Plot summary (with spoilers): Angela (played by Heather Graham) and Curtis (Jerry O’Connell) are a recently married power couple trying to focus on their careers. Angela works for an advertising agency and is assigned to a major project by her hard-ass boss Mary (Lara Flynn Boyle). If Angela screws it up, she’ll be gone. Meanwhile, Curtis, a divorce attorney, tries to keep the firm going while partner and friend Danny (John Corbett) drinks himself into oblivion because of marital problems.
One day, thanks to a huge misunderstanding, Angela assumes that Curtis is cheating on her. She blows up at him and accuses him on the spot. Instead of denying the charges, Curtis, who has been listening to too many of Danny’s rants, in turn assumes that Angela is the one who’s cheating, so he leaves — only to realize he has no place to go. He eventually returns to the house where he and Anglea try to coexist without acknowledging each other.
To further complicate things, Angela discovers that she’s pregnant. This doesn’t seem like the right time at all, what with the project and the problems with Curtis. But she decides to keep the baby and work around the other stuff. Curtis is under the impression that the baby might not even be his, so he’s less than ecstatic about the situation himself.
The rest of the film then shows how Angela tries to balance her career and pregnancy, and also reconcile with Curtis before all is said and done. Curtis is busy as well, trying to get Danny to patch things up with his wife, which helps Curtis realize just how much he loves Angela. Everything works out in the end, of course, for everyone in the entire film.
My Reaction: I decided to rent Baby on Board despite the atrocious reviews because Lara Flynn Boyle used to be one of my favorite actresses and I hadn’t seen a project of hers in a long time. But, wow, this film was one of the worst I’ve ever sat through from start to finish. There were so many problems with it that I hardly know which one to address first.
Well, let’s start with the plot. The entire film hinges on the incredibly stupid idea that a woman would accuse her husband of cheating, and that he would accept her anger and move out — even though he hasn’t done anything!! Come on! Is there really a married couple out there on this planet that would not have a detailed conversation and/or argument about an accusation of cheating?? Especially when they seemed to get along so well before that? I absolutely HATE when the whole plot is dependent on something that could be resolved so damn easily. This does not happen in real life, and it’s hard to swallow in a movie.
Another of this film’s miserable failings is the lack of comedy. The jokes are dumb (they resort to farts and churning stomachs for laughs) and just made the whole experience worse.
Overall, I was really hoping for a lot more from a film that stars decent (not great, but decent) actors like Graham, O’Connell, Corbett, and Boyle. But Baby on Board is positively horrid and isn’t even worth the $3.50 to rent. Save your pennies and skip this one! I give it 0 stars out of 5 — which is a rare rating for a movie that I actually watch til the end.