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Labor Pains is directed by Lara Shapiro. The film stars
Lindsay Lohan, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Luke Kirby,
and Kevin Covais. ***
When an up-and-coming girl at her job is about to be
fired and replaced by someone obviously more qualified,
she comes up with a brilliant scheme to keep her job – faking
pregnancy, since it is illegal to fire a pregnant woman.
The scheme seems to work well at first glance – but things
take a turn for the worst when she begins falling for a
relative of her boss who is running the business in his
absence. Will she be able to keep the charade up for long?
***
Let me start this review by saying that Lindsay Lohan
is criminally unde rrated, both as an actress and a musician.
Some of her recent exploits in the public eye have overshadowed
this, but she is very talented, and given the right material,
can give a damn good performance. Unfortunately, as you’ll
quickly discover, Labor Pains is far from the right material.
***
This is one of those movies with an intriguing premise,
but the end result is a horrid mess. What is intended to
spoof pregnancy ends up feeling more like a generic romantic
comedy, or worse yet, a sitcom episode dragged out to fill
a 90-minute time frame. ***
The characters are paper thin. The film fails to achieve
what it sets out to do. Poor direction and writing derail
a concept that had serious potential. In the end, the real
victims here are the stars – these are talented actors.
But they were given such shoddy material to work with. Even
the best actors can’t make good on crappy source material.
And in the end, I don’t know what would be more painful
– enduring pregnancy, or watching Labor Pains again. You
can skip this one. ---
Image and Sound:
For what it is, the movie looks and sounds pretty good.
It’s far above average for a TV movie. The image is bright
and clear throughout and there are no major negative anomalies
in the picture. Audio is competent, with dialogue obviously
being the major part of the mix. All in all, the movie looks
and sounds good.
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