Main cast: Hugh Laurie (Sam), Joely Richardson (Lucy), Matthew Macfadyen (Nigel), Adrian Lester (George), Yasmin Bannerman (Melinda), Joanna Lumley (Sheila), Rachael Stirling (Joanna), Dave Thompson (Dave the Comedian), Emma Thompson (Druscilla), James Purefoy (Carl Phipps), Tom Hollander (Ewan Proclaimer), Rowan Atkinson (Mr James), Kelly Reilly (Nimnh), and Dawn French (Charlene)
Director: Ben Elton

The director Ben Elton based this movie on his own bestselling novel Inconceivable. Having full script control, what can go wrong, right? After all, this British director has directed some great dramas before.

Well, plenty.

Maybe Baby is an utterly uninteresting, even remarkably dull movie with all the usual hijinks I have ever seen in a movie about marriages gone awry all padded in one uneven movie. Lucy and Sam want a baby but can’t have one even after constantly boinking at critical moments.

Then there’s the usual “He doesn’t understand me!” thing that has her turning her eyes onto a handsome colleague.

The only different angle here is Sam deciding to write a script about his sperm woes, which cause wife to become even more estranged from him. Can he win her back? Do I care?

The humor is way off, often relying on secondary characters that more often than not distracts my attention from the story. There are cameos from Emma Thompson as some Earth Mother kook (she advises some New Age treatments for Lucy), Dawn French as an abrasive nurse, and Rowan “Mr Bean” Atkinson as a weird gynecologist. But more often than not, their antics are slapstick in nature. What are they doing in this movie?

Everything else is utterly predictable, right down to the characterization. Sam’s a “simple, uncomplicated middle class man”, Lucy’s a “dreamy woman who loves Shakespeare”, the other man is a sleaze, the best buddies are confidantes… zzzz…

Maybe Baby is watchable, but barely just.