While it’s possible to mine humor from a couple’s fertility issues, there’s a conspicuous lack of laughs in the latest film from Broken Lizard alum Jay Chandrasekhar. The wanna-be–parental pair in question—Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey (Olivia Munn)—navigates a barrage of unsolicited folk advice, medical consultations and masculinity issues when they have trouble conceiving. Naturally, Tommy decides the solution is to rob the sperm bank to which he used to donate back when he had viable swimmers and reclaim his frozen baby batter. Why the film spins in place interminably before even getting to this allegedly wacky premise is anyone’s guess, as is the mystery of how the film fails to wring even the mildest chuckles from both Tommy’s inability to masturbate at the doctor’s office and the eagerness of his male friends to offer up their seed on his behalf.
The few gags that do work involve the film’s offhandedly open discussion of race: Exchanges about international adoption and Asian babies are far funnier than the
many tired dick jokes and a chubby-sidekick pratfall into a lab’s worth of genetic material. Munn has proved on TV that she has solid timing, but she does little here other than look pretty and, when the plot calls for it, outraged. As for the likable Schneider, the All the Real Girls actor demonstrates that he’s better off as a straight man than as a physical comedian.
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