Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

hmcusn294 I'm not a fan of British comedies unless they have sub-titles, without which I cannot understand half the dialogue, and I guess they didn't think this DVD would be sold outside Great Britain; no subtitles, which left me scratching my head during the scenes with the character of the Scottish director.Now, having said that, I loved this movie. I'm not too familiar with most of the players in the film, but Joely Richardson has made enough American films that she is a familiar face, and I thought she was perfect in the role of Lucy, which makes me wonder if some of these reviews are of another film. She was incredibly beautiful and brought life to her character It is a story of a childless British couple, Sam and Lucy Bell, who desperately want a baby but are, so far, infertile. Sam is a screenwriter who has developed a writers block and needs inspiration for a movie plot, and he decides, against Lucy's wishes, to use their struggle to become pregnant as the plot for a script.Lucy is having her own problems as she undergoes humiliating treatments and examinations by her weird OB Gyn, Rowan Atkinson, of Mr. Bean fame, and finds herself drawn to an actor client who has set his sights on her, and we find ourselves wondering if she will succumb to his advances. The story is billed as a comedy but it wanders back and forth between comedy, pathos and drama, and in the end leaves you wanting to see it again.....and if you are like me, again.

laurel21000 I got a hold of this film only because I was interested in seeking out more of Hugh Laurie's work. I did not know what to expect - did not even know it was a comedy.And it turned out to be a hoot. One of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. I thought the screenplay was excellent. Fantastically clever dialogue.Now I'm very keen to embark on a quest to unearth whatever else screenwriter and director Ben Elton has done.One of the things I especially liked about how this film was put together was the way it combined absurdity and farce with a more conventional rom-com approach.The cameos by Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson were fall-out-of-your-seat hilarious (as were the more lengthy contributions of Matthew Macfadyen). At first I sort of wondered if they would jerk me out of involvement with the story line but they did not.In fact, I think this is a really smart approach to doing a comedy. Too much broad farce in one film can quickly lead to burn-out. But when it's limited for the most part to cameos, it's very welcome and entertaining and enhances rather than detracts from engagement with the plot.The casting in this film was inspired. Joely Richardson was perfect. Matthew Macfadyen could not have been better. James Purefoy was wonderful. As was Adrian Lester.Surprisingly, since it was his work specifically I was initially looking forward to seeing, Hugh Laurie's was the only performance in which I was somewhat disappointed. Laurie seemed to go out of his way to low-key it. I think he chose to go too minimalist in his interpretation of his character. Just my opinion. But hey, Hugh Laurie, even not at his best is still pretty darn terrific.I think writer and director Ben Elton created an exceptionally entertaining and at times very moving film that is very much worth seeing. In fact, I think this film has the potential to have the lifespan and long reach of many of the screwball comedies of the 40s.

junk-monkey If you ever get into an argument about whether writers should be allowed to adapt their own books (based on their own life experiences) for the screen - and then get to direct what they have written, then cite this movie as an example as to why it should never be allowed.The basic premise of the movie is fine: a couple cannot conceive. They undergo IVF. He writes a film script based on the experience without telling her, reading her secret diary to get "the woman's angle". She finds out. They separate but are reconciled.Where the film fails (and this is where my argument about letting writers direct comes in) is in the dialogue. The speeches in this thing are so stodgy. So wordy. Everything sounds like it came straight off the page of the book. Everybody talks all the time in well rounded complete paragraphs. Speeches that might read well on the page of a novel will sound clumsy and stilted if acted without some revision, cutting, some paring down. In real life, people just don't talk like they do in books. In real life, people just don't talk like they do in this movie - not even smug rich London media types. There was no natural rhythm to the conversations and I felt really sorry for the actors having to deliver this stuff, and they had to deliver so much of it. The performances suffered as a result. No one was believable in their characters except maybe Adrian Lester, who has a talent for shining out in bad British movies. He shone out again, solely I suspect by virtue of having some of the shortest lines in the whole thing.The music was pretty dreadful too - especially the moment when, abandoned by his wife, Hugh Laurie has to stand there being miserable with Westlife telling us he's miserable on the soundtrack. WE GET THE MESSAGE!Ben Elton is, famously, one of the father figures of the "Alternative Comedy" boom back in the Eighties which lambasted the cosy unreal clichéd world that British comedy had become. It's sad then to see him turn out this bloated unamusing movie which is about as unfunny, and unconnected from reality as any episode Terry and June (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135736/). It runs for 101 minutes and feels like half that again. The whole movie is about babies, and one thing I do know about babies is they grow up. They become their own people, start to live lives of their own. Elton should have let his baby go. In the hands of a scriptwriter and a director who could step back from the story and take a more objective approach this could have been a really good film.

sandamy27 This film was terrific. The charisma between Joely Richardson and Hugh Laurie is terrific and completely believable. The movie is so powerful however that I would only advise seeing it in the company of others if you have already achieved your family size. In other words, it would be a very painful movie to watch with someone who was having trouble with infertility. It's funny, but it's also very true. For me, it touched at the heart of all the issues involved in infertility. And Ms Richardson is a superb actress. I've also seen her at the Haymarket in Lady Windemere's Fan and she is an excellent performer.The semi-cameo (and slightly camp) performances by Dawn French, Joanna Lumley, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson made for fun entertainment as well.