There is some decent talent involved. The premise for the story intrigued and sounded quite good, regardless of its lack of originality. The cover gave the sense it would be fairly suspenseful and interesting. 'When the Bough Breaks' was definitely not a film that sounded like it was going to be a disaster hearing about it.
It as a film is still not that much of a disaster too, there are merits here. The decent potential shown initially is sadly not sustained and generally not lived up to, so sadly 'When the Bough Breaks' is not a particularly good film either. As indicated just now, there was no initial bias against it or wanting to dislike it at all. Far from the truth, actually thought it had potential to be an unexceptional but not too bad film. It was a real shame it wasn't that, but it could have been so much worse.
'When the Bough Breaks' does have good elements. The acting from Regina Hall, Michael K. Williams and Morris Chestnut is better than average, Chestnut actually being quite good and suitably intensely brooding. Definitely the best thing about the film. The production values are not too cheap and the music is ominous without being too intrusive or obvious.
First impressions were a promising start that did intrigue and had some slow-burning suspense.
Sadly, that slow-burning suspense was far from sustained all the way through. 'When the Bough Breaks' generally lacks tension, danger and suspense, hurt by that it treads familiar ground so often that any surprises or anything new cannot be seen. The characters fail to be interesting and don't have much to make one endear to them, it was purposeful for some but don't think that was intent for all of them to be so. The direction does well with the visuals but in terms of the storytelling it fails, being pedestrian in a lot of the first half and then losing control in the second. It gets melodramatic in places and should have been much bolder, for a film with this concept it was rather tame.
Promising beginning aside, the first half is on the dull side. As said by others while the second half does pick up things start getting silly, rushed and implausible, some of it making one feel stupid, culminating in an ending that ends too suddenly and almost unfinished-like. The dialogue is cheesy and very difficult to take seriously, also not flowing naturally. Jaz Sinclair seemed out of her element and doesn't have the chops to carry the lead role and the film, while Theo Rossi is awful, no engagement whatsoever.
Concluding, not terrible but also not good. 4/10 Bethany Cox
