Miss Conception

Scott Hardie: “It sucked.”

For bad-movie junkies like me, Heather Graham is the most reliable actress in Hollywood. Just when this movie seems at last to be getting its act together and becoming remotely watchable, bam! It stumbles again! Another tasteless joke, another forced plot device, another annoying line reading. This is a brainless sitcom apparently lacking a script, in which the actors hem and haw their way through what seems like mumbled improv. Forget cracking jokes spontaneously; this cast can't even make it through entire sentences, as if they've all suffered recent blows to the head, especially semi-stoned best-friend Mia Kirshner. Their slow-witted blankness is offset by the cartoonishly hyper musical score, which keeps playing its little heart out in an attempt to carry the disastrous film all by itself. Graham has one genuinely moving moment in her acting, in an inevitable burst of emotion late in the film (notice the score try to outdo her), but otherwise she's as dull and talentless as ever, changing in and out of her British accent like a costume. She's not just a bad actress; she consistently chooses some of the worst star vehicles in the direct-to-market movie business. Her name on the DVD case has become a promise that the film is going to suck, and she doesn't disappoint with this film.

− December 14, 2008 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply