Labor Pains is drek on a warped stick of the offensive illogical sort that always bugs me in movies. It made its way from its original destination of theatrical distribution to TV, and it was more than the right decision. Out of all of the tumbles that the talented Lindsay Lohan (yes, talented, there is something there) has had in recent years, most notably the fun-bad psycho-trip of I Know Who Killed Me, this is by far the blightiest of blights. It's one of those premises that one snickers at when first hearing, but is clever to the average viewer, on paper: career girl at a publishing house is about to be fired by her uptight boss when she lies in saying she's pregnant, only to have to keep up the lie for months around her co-workers. If you think you know everything you're about to see here, you're more than correct, and that's worse than anything.
Nothing is funny here, not a joke connects or works, and if it weren't for the very brief appearance of Creed from the Office it would be abominable. The screenplay is at the heart of it; it's one of those s***-bag scripts that somehow gets past the readers at the production officers (perhaps in spite of their hopefully scathing synopses and critiques), and makes its way through production without the filmmakers or cast questioning what the hell is going on here. It almost becomes oddly interesting in a way the makers didn't intend and subconsciously I wonder if Lohan even knew. It comes closest at making sense as a semi-allegory for Lohan's current state in Hollywood: a working girl who gets stuck lying about something she can't really control, and keeps up the lie, sticking with it as a compulsion despite the few who really know what's going on with all their might telling her "STOP IT", with the consequences quite absurd and tragic. More so absurd, I guess.
But, really, it shouldn't matter ultimately what Lohan does with herself in her private life, as long as she can be in material that rises to the level of worth and entertainment of Mean Girls in 2004. Labor Pains makes an attempt, and perhaps succeeds, at putting a gigantic crater-sized dent in that career she's building up. It's a clichéd comedy that is both stilted and boring, predictable and hackneyed, unbelievable in character and story as well as directed with at best a kind of lame competency that might get the director and producers work again, if luck prevails on careful use for a reel. Or maybe it's better at the bottom of the $1 bin at Wal-Mart. Beware of this preggo-baby rom-com swill! 1.5/10
Nothing is funny here, not a joke connects or works, and if it weren't for the very brief appearance of Creed from the Office it would be abominable. The screenplay is at the heart of it; it's one of those s***-bag scripts that somehow gets past the readers at the production officers (perhaps in spite of their hopefully scathing synopses and critiques), and makes its way through production without the filmmakers or cast questioning what the hell is going on here. It almost becomes oddly interesting in a way the makers didn't intend and subconsciously I wonder if Lohan even knew. It comes closest at making sense as a semi-allegory for Lohan's current state in Hollywood: a working girl who gets stuck lying about something she can't really control, and keeps up the lie, sticking with it as a compulsion despite the few who really know what's going on with all their might telling her "STOP IT", with the consequences quite absurd and tragic. More so absurd, I guess.
But, really, it shouldn't matter ultimately what Lohan does with herself in her private life, as long as she can be in material that rises to the level of worth and entertainment of Mean Girls in 2004. Labor Pains makes an attempt, and perhaps succeeds, at putting a gigantic crater-sized dent in that career she's building up. It's a clichéd comedy that is both stilted and boring, predictable and hackneyed, unbelievable in character and story as well as directed with at best a kind of lame competency that might get the director and producers work again, if luck prevails on careful use for a reel. Or maybe it's better at the bottom of the $1 bin at Wal-Mart. Beware of this preggo-baby rom-com swill! 1.5/10