Film Review – When the Bough Breaks

Screen Gems has a September formula, and it’s been working wonderfully for the studio. They struck gold with 2009’s “Obsessed,” finding an audience hungry for thrillers featuring unhinged characters and wild acts of survival. In 2014, “No Good Deed” did well, and 2015’s “The Perfect Guy” also successfully milked the genre. And now there’s “When the Bough Breaks,” their latest offering of exploitation, this time taking on the world of surrogacy and youthful instability. It’s a pre-heated slice of PG-13 escapism from director Jon Cassar, who did a nice job with last winter’s Keifer Sutherland western, “Forsaken.” However, most moviemaking instincts now fail the helmer, who, after a strong start, cranks up the stupidity of Jack Olsen’s screenplay, ignoring the potential for a clever, devious nail-biter, only interested in making the most obvious visual and dramatic choices with this uninspired picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com