A Deadly Adoption
“How could you do this to our family?!” On April Fool’s Day of this year, THR broke news that former SNL stars Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig had teamed for a top secret Lifetime movie called A Deadly Adoption. Per THR, A Deadly Adoption was planned for an early summer release. Ferrell and Wiig would star in the dramatic thriller as “a successful couple who house and care for a pregnant woman (played by 90210 alum Jessica Lowndes) with the hopes of adopting her unborn child — then things quickly go awry.” Despite Ferrell and Wiig’s presence, A Deadly Adoption was described not as a parody of the frequently cheesy, trashy Lifetime Network movies, but more of a loving homage with the actors playing everything straight. Executive produced by Ferrell and Adam McKay, the script was penned by Andrew Steele, co-creator IFC’s The Spoils of Babylon, which also starred Ferrell and Wiig. A Deadly Adoption‘s in-joke nature was said to be part of the celebration of Lifetime’s 25th anniversary of its TV movies. The fun ended the following day. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Ferrell said “We are deeply disappointed that our planned top secret project was made public. Kristen and I have decided it is in the best interest for everyone to forego the project entirely, and we thank Lifetime and all the people who were ready to help us make this film.” Was Lifetime really going to scrap the project they had spent money on now, just because Ferrell said he was unhappy that the story leaked? Lifetime, and the stars and crew of the film, kept it as quiet as possible, but eventually A Deadly Adoption arrived on June 20, and was exactly what was promised: a Lifetime movie. Which means it was something of a chore to sit through, even if engaging in the trend of “ Continue reading >>
Metformin: An Old But Still The Best Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes
Go to: Introduction The discovery of metformin began with the synthesis of galegine-like compounds derived from Gallega officinalis, a plant traditionally employed in Europe as a drug for diabetes treatment for centuries [1]. In 1950, Stern et al. discovered the clinical usefulness of metformin while working in Paris. They observed that the dose–response of metformin was related to its glucose lowering capacity and that metformin toxicity also displayed a wide security margin [1]. Metformin acts primarily at the liver by reducing glucose output and, secondarily, by augmenting glucose uptake in the peripheral tissues, chiefly muscle. These effects are mediated by the activation of an upstream kinase, liver kinase B1 (LKB-1), which in turn regulates the downstream kinase adenosine monophosphatase protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK phosphorylates a transcriptional co-activator, transducer of regulated CREB protein 2 (TORC2), resulting in its inactivation which consequently downregulates transcriptional events that promote synthesis of gluconeogenic enzymes [2]. Inhibition of mitochondrial respiration has also been proposed to contribute to the reduction of gluconeogenesis since it reduces the energy supply required for this process [3]. Metformin’s efficacy, security profile, benefic cardiovascular and metabolic effects, and its capacity to be associated with other antidiabetic agents makes this drug the first glucose lowering agent of choice when treating patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (TDM2). Metformin and pre-diabetes In 2000, an estimated 171 million people in the world had diabetes, and the numbers are projected to double by 2030. Interventions to prevent type 2 diabetes, therefore, have an important role in future health policies. Developing countries are expect Continue reading >>
- Is It Time to Change the Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Paradigm? No! Metformin Should Remain the Foundation Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes
- Our Diabetes Story: My 11 Year old Son Went Into Diabetic Ketoacidosis and Was Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes
- Improved pregnancy outcomes in women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes but substantial clinic-to-clinic variations: a prospective nationwide study
10 Most Absurd Moments In Will Ferrell-kristen Wiig Lifetime Movie
Unable to play video. Neither flash nor html5 is supported! If you saw Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig's Lifetime movie and are still trying to process what you just witnessed, you're not alone. There were certainly a lot of life lessons to be learned in A Deadly Adoption, which aired Saturday on the cable channel. Possible morals to the story are to make sure the dock on your lake is not in disrepair, look at someone's stomach before just assuming they're pregnant and always, always keep track of the groupies you sleep with on book tours. The film centered on married couple Robert (Ferrell) and Sarah (Wiig) and their daughter Sully, who welcomed Bridget (Jessica Lowndes), the pregnant mother of their adoptive child, into their home. Bad things ensued. Here are ten of the film's most head-scratching moments. (Spoilers ahead.) Robert silently mouthed Sarah's name as she fell into the water Wooden docks are not to be trusted, apparently, which a pregnant Sarah learned when falling into the water and losing their baby. Also, Robert probably could have benefited from some CPR classes at some point in his life, since he seemed to have no idea what he was doing. Sarah was certain that Bridget is A-OK "I think we're going to be really happy," Sarah told Robert as they invited Bridget to move in, which was a surefire sign that they were going to be decidedly unhappy. Bridget desecrated Robert's book cover, as if the publishing industry didn't have enough problems Bridget didn't waste time to start destroying the family's property. She picked up a copy of Robert's book -; which inexplicably featured him with his wife on the front cover -; and tore off Sarah's picture, as it slowly cascaded to the ground. "Good luck getting a used bookstore to buy this with half a cover missing, Ro Continue reading >>
- Is it possible to catch diabetes? It sounds absurd, but that's what a reputable new study suggests. And it may be that other 'lifestyle' diseases such as joint pain and even obesity are contagious, too
- 40% of American adults will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime
- Goodbye to Type 2 Diabetes, Meds, and a Lifetime of Dieting
Tv Review: ‘a Deadly Adoption’
So with apologies to all concerned, what on Earth was the point of that? Perhaps if Will Ferrell had successfully premiered “A Deadly Adoption” as a completely stealth project, it would have been surprising to see him and Kristen Wiig turn up in what feels like a straight-forward Lifetime movie. As is, the producers have essentially engaged in a college-type exercise, seeing if they can replicate the predictable touches that characterize this kind of movie, for an audience that doesn’t have much sense of humor, usually, about its “stories.” The result? A film with something for virtually no one. Granted, Ferrell has exhibited an interest in spoofing some of TV’s more risible conventions, including the wholly mediocre miniseries satire “The Spoils of Babylon.” As a result, many no doubt tuned in expecting something similar, even if the network and filmmakers remained mum about the movie, other than plastering L.A., at least, with billboards for it. After about 20 minutes, though, it became increasingly clear this was being done without anything approaching an overt arched eyebrow, instead tapping directly into the typical Lifetime “inspired by a true story” niche — in this case, about a wealthy couple in an idyllic lake town being faced with a threat to their hearth and home, “Fatal Attraction” style. Ferrell’s Robert Benson is a successful author, and his wife, Sarah (Wiig), runs her own organic food business. But they suffered a tragic loss during her pregnancy that left her unable to have more kids. Flash ahead five years, and their daughter (Alyvia Alyn Lind) is turning 6, while the marriage is barely bumping along. Although Robert has been cool to adoption candidates, they almost instantly settle on the pregnant Bridgette (Jessica Lowndes Continue reading >>
6 Things Kristen Wiig And Will Ferrell’s A Deadly Adoption Taught Us About Lifetime Movies
Lifetime/YouTube For two and a half decades, the Lifetime network has been blessing America with schlocky, made-for-TV movies that fall somewhere between daytime soap opera and America’s Most Wanted reenactments. Some of them focus on celebrities (Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, William & Kate: The Movie); some are true-crime thrillers (The Craigslist Killer), and some are original and possibly instructive tales (How I Married My High School Crush). All of them rely on questionable dialogue, gauzy lighting, and an overdose of over-the-top drama. On Saturday, June 20, the network premiered its latest work, the highly anticipated and very Lifetime-ishly titled A Deadly Adoption, starring Saturday Night Live alums Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig. The stars had reportedly wanted the project to be a secret, going so far as to briefly claim it had been scrapped after details were leaked to the press. And despite A Deadly Adoption’s high-comedy pedigree — Ferrell and Adam McKay’s (Stepbrothers) company, Gary Sanchez Productions, produced, and Andrew Steele (of the epic romance spoof The Spoils of Babylon, also starring Wiig and Ferrell) wrote the script — Lifetime VP of original movies Arturo Interian told EW the film was not meant to be a joke: "It’s not the Scary Movie parody of a Lifetime movie. [Ferrell] wanted to legitimately do a Lifetime sexual thriller." And a Lifetime sexual thriller was exactly what he produced: Ferrell and Wiig play Robert and Sarah Benson, a married couple with a 5-year-old diabetic daughter named Sully. The movie begins with a tragic accident on a boating dock that causes Sarah to miscarry their second child, then picks up five years later as they're trying to adopt. They soon meet Bridgette (Jessica Lowndes), the apparent birth mother of Continue reading >>
Will Ferrell And Kristen Wiig Are Sincere To A Fault In Lifetime’s A Deadly Adoption
Lifetime’s original movie A Deadly Adoption was supposed to be a secret, aired with little fanfare and opaque promo spots that provided no detail about who starred in it. The movie would look like typical Lifetime fare, but those who turned in would be shocked to see Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig as the stars. When word of the project leaked early, Ferrell was quite upset the secret got out. Lifetime put out a lot of weird mixed signals in its response, but at one point the story was that A Deadly Adoption was being canceled. That seemed unlikely, given that the film was already in the can at the time the news leaked. But at a certain point, the whole narrative got muddied and it seemed just as likely the whole thing was an elaborate viral marketing stunt. Upon seeing A Deadly Adoption, it’s much easier to make sense of why Ferrell would react so negatively to the project leaking, even to the point of preferring it didn’t air at all. Adoption isn’t outright terrible, but such qualitative judgments become elastic when you’re this far into kitsch genre homage. A Deadly Adoption is to the melodramatic, made-for-TV domestic thriller as Black Dynamite is to Blaxploitation or as The House Of The Devil is to horror films of the Satanic panic era. Adoption is a meticulous recreation of a Lifetime potboiler, played completely straight by its entire cast, save for a few minutes at the end. It’s not a spoof or a riff, it’s the real thing, right down to the note. Given what the film is, Ferrell was right to be bummed out about the way its airing came about. Imagine if it had aired as the creators intended: A few people would tweet that there was the weirdest movie on Lifetime, then it would start trending, and people would tune in to bug out en masse about how straigh Continue reading >>
A Deadly Adoption Review: Will Ferrell And Kristen Wiig's Superb Lifetime Spoof
Coming three years after Casa de mi Padre and a week before The Spoils Before Dying, A Dangerous Adoption suggests that Will Ferrell and his sometime partner in crime Kristen Wiig are determined to spoof every last TV genre they can lay their hands on. Ferrell’s Casa De Mi Padre took the Latin American telenovela to the woodshed, while The Spoils of Babylon (The Spoils Before Dying being a sequel) went toe-to-toe with big-budget epic miniseries of the 1970s and 80s like The Thornbirds and oligarchic oilpatch melodramas like Dallas. A Dangerous Adoption is an altogether different bird: a satire of Lifetime Channel TV movies. It’s a tricky prospect, because Lifetime movies have a formula so solid you sometimes feel they arrive pre-satirised, with many a knowing wink and a whole set of genre staples, tics and tropes. The titles alone give you some idea – in most cases they double as pitch and plot: I Killed My BFF, The Wife He Met Online, Babysitter’s Black Book, Fifteen and Pregnant, Kept Woman, Sexting in Suburbia, and Men Are Terrible and Will Hurt You Because This is Lifetime (oh wait, that was the Lifetime movie spoof on Family Guy). It’s a heady mix of women’s issues, women’s nightmares and all manner of “female trouble.” Its ancestors are old-school network made-for-TV movies, 1980s “Disease-of-the-Week” melodramas, the telenovela-lite, and over-ripe, over-sexed After School Specials. And it draws a steady sub-audience of fans who watch ironically or satirically, eagle-eyed for those long meaningful pauses, murdery double-entendres, weak male leads and instantly recognisable narrative shorthand. You could call it an upscale housewives-choice channel, I suppose, but it’s sassy enough to draw in those husbands – and others, too – thus compo Continue reading >>
A Deadly Adoption
Husband of Julia : [beginning of film; cuts cake] Okay, if you're gonna force me. Julia : [laughs] No one's forcing you; you can stop anytime. Man at table : So, Robert, your latest book's at the top of the bestseller list, huh. Robert Benson : [holding Sully, focused on her] Ah, it's creeping up there! My agent's really been pushing it. Little Sully here could care less about bestsellers. Julia : [sympathetically] Oh, maybe she doesn't read your books, but the rest of us do. Husband of Julia : Seriously, those books have helped Julia and I manage our money. You should be proud. Julia : [begins toast] To Robert! America's next financial guru. [he happily toasts her] Man at table : To Robert. Pretty soon, you're gonna have your own TV show, syndicated radio program... Robert Benson : No chance of that. Nothing's gonna pull me away from my family. Julia : [inquisitive] Hey, where did Sarah run off to? Robert Benson : I haven't seen her since we sang "Happy Birthday." I can't keep track of her. She's always runnin' around. She's probably digging in her garden. Man at table : Well, that's what you get for marrying a girl off the farm. Man at table : [looks back to Robert] I think she wants to take the boat out. Robert Benson : The dock is rotten; we're gonna have it fixed by next week. Honey, get off the dock! [she puts down her arms in some frustration] Husband of Julia : You can hardly wait for that baby brother, huh. Julia : [laughs] That's 'cause you don't have to carry that little monster around for the next nine months. [puts hand to pregnant belly] Robert Benson : [sighs, shifting with Sully] Looks like I'm gonna have to run down there and pull her off that dock myself. Husband of Julia : Yep. [waves life jacket] Bridgette Gibson : I was gonna sit out on the patio in Continue reading >>
10 Most Brilliantly Lifetime-gasmic Moments In 'a Deadly Adoption'
Thank you, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, for A Deadly Adoption, the "Sabotage" video of Lifetime movies. Ever since the duo had announced they were doing this, it's been clear they set out to make a real Lifetime movie, not a parody. So A Deadly Adoption is a glorious two-hour love letter to the network's flicks and those of us who live for them. Every mega-cheese trope is here, from the opening credits (an aerial shot of a lake house!) to the final words, "Inspired by a true story." So many lines that are in every Lifetime movie ("Let this be our little secret" or "How could you do this to our family?") as well as lines that are merely in half of them ("I'm your new mommy!") and lines that as far as I know are only in this one: "You know the dangers of diabetic ketoacidosis!" The Deadly Adoption premiere was enhanced hugely by the movie that was on right before it: I Killed My BFF, based on Lifetime's long-running reality series, starring Katrina Bowden (Cerie from 30 Rock!) as the killer. If you blinked, you couldn't spot where one movie ended and the next began. Even if it's made by comedians (it was written by The Spoils of Babylon's Andrew Steele), A Deadly Adoption looks and feels like the real thing — which is the whole point. You need several thousand hours of Dying To Belong or Deadly Vows or The Babysitter's Seduction under your belt just to get it. Ferrell and Wiig play it totally straight as Robert and Sarah, a nice couple in the brilliantly named town of Storm Lake. He's a best-selling author about personal finance (Debt: Not Just a Four-Letter Word) while she sells her organic gluten-free pumpkin muffins. With their daughter Sully, they look like the perfect family — except they're haunted by a lingering Trauma that Drives Them Apart. (It involves a S Continue reading >>
'a Deadly Adoption': 10 Most Absurd Moments In Will Ferrell-kristen Wiig Lifetime Movie
Diving away from trucks, tearing up magazines and dancing for a really, really long time. If you saw Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig's Lifetime movie and are still trying to process what you just witnessed, you're not alone. There were certainly a lot of life lessons to be learned in A Deadly Adoption, which aired Saturday on the cable channel. You may have learned to make sure the dock on your lake is not in disrepair, look carefully at a woman's stomach before assuming she's pregnant and always, always keep track of the groupies you sleep with on book tours. The film centers on married couple Robert (Ferrell) and Sarah (Wiig) and their daughter Sully, who welcome into their home Bridget (Jessica Lowndes), the pregnant mother of the baby they plan to adopt. Bad things ensue. Here are ten of the film's most head-scratching moments. (Spoilers ahead.) Robert silently mouths Sarah's name as she fell into the water Never trust a wooden dock. This was a lesson pregnant Sarah learned the hard way, falling into the water and losing their second baby. Also, Robert probably could have benefited from some CPR classes at some point in his life, since he seems to have no idea what he is doing. Sarah was certain that Bridget is A-OK "I think we're going to be really happy," Sarah tells Robert as they invited Bridget to move in, which was a surefire sign that they were going to be decidedly unhappy. Bridget desecrated Robert's magazine cover, as if the publishing industry didn't have enough problems Bridget didn't waste time to start destroying the family's property. She picked up a magazine with Robert and Sarah on the cover, and tears off Sarah's picture, as it slowly cascades to the ground. The dangers of ... what was that again? One of the most memorable lines is Robert dramaticall Continue reading >>
- Is it possible to catch diabetes? It sounds absurd, but that's what a reputable new study suggests. And it may be that other 'lifestyle' diseases such as joint pain and even obesity are contagious, too
- 40% of American adults will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime
- Goodbye to Type 2 Diabetes, Meds, and a Lifetime of Dieting
Symptoms And Symptom Management
Many physical and psychological symptoms accompany the end of life. In one study, 1,000 cancer patients had a median of eleven symptoms during the terminal phase of illness, many of which affect the patient's quality of life. Assessment and management of common symptoms are thus integral to a balanced approach to end-of-life care. Because of the multidimensional nature of many symptoms, an interdisciplinary team approach to assessment and management is essential. Such an interdisciplinary team calls for the expertise of nurses, physicians, social workers, nursing assistants, spiritual care providers, and expressive therapists. Prevalence and Relevance of Symptoms Pharmacological and nonpharmacological efforts to alleviate the symptoms seek to accommodate the patient's desires. For example, if a patient has requested to be as alert as possible until death, and if the same patient needs an antiemetic agent to control nausea and vomiting, the common side effect of sedation represents an unacceptable tradeoff to the patient. If, on the other hand, the patient desires total control of the nausea and vomiting, even at the expense of alertness, such medication would be appropriate. The goal of symptom management is quality of life. Fatigue. Fatigue is the most prevalent end-of-life symptom, second only to pain. In a study by Conill, fatigue was present in 80 percent of 176 palliative care patients. There is not a universal definition of fatigue. Patients often speak of weakness, easy tiring, or inability to perform the activities of daily living. According to death experts Linda Tyler and Arthur Lipman, fatigue is a multifaceted symptom. Tyler and Lipman identify the following causes of fatigue: anemia, pain, depression, insomnia, dehydration, metabolic disease process, and si Continue reading >>
'a Deadly Adoption' Live Blog: All The Will Ferrell-kristen Wiig Lifetime Goodness
It’s finally here! The movie Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig made on the DL for Lifetime, called “A Deadly Adoption.” It premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT and it’s going to be an awesome, wild ride. Based on the trailers, it looks to be chock full of all the Lifetime cliches: A happy couple, a crazy interloper, a not-what-he-seems father, a child in peril and a dangerous baby daddy. It all adds up to awesome. Check in here with Zap2it for all the watch-along goodies that goes along with a movie of the week turned up to 11. We’ll have video clips, the funniest tweets and lots of snark. All times Eastern. 7:30 p.m.: 30 minutes ’til showtime and people are already getting pumped about it on Twitter: If you have no interest in watching “A Deadly Adoption,” you may want to get off Twitter. It is going to explode. Ricky Bobby says you’re a loser if you don’t watch #DeadlyAdoption tonight on #Lifetime! #WillFerrell #KristenWiig pic.twitter.com/eJ2WQF2DJS — Chicks With Problems (@problemchicks) June 20, 2015 7:55 p.m.: The pre-“Deadly Adoption” movie is “I Killed My BFF.” It’s certainly … dramatic. Is that Cerie from “30 Rock”? 8:03 p.m.: Slow-motion tragedy! Yesssss. 8:06 p.m.: Robert has a drinking problem, drink! And he lies about it, drink again! 8:10 p.m.: Is the daughter going to almost die because of the diabetes or the bicycle? You know what they say about the potentially life-threatening disease and/or bicycle introduced in the first act … 8:14 p.m.: The crazy interloper is there, ready to “Single White Female” the heck out of Sarah. 8:22 p.m.: “Oh Robert. What a mess.” Wait, so, is Bridget there to steal Robert for herself, or is there something else going on? Please let it be that she’s his illegitimate daughter he never knew a Continue reading >>
Will Ferrell & Kristen Wiig's Lifetime Movie, A Deadly Adoption, Was Everything And More: 5 Things You Can Learn
Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig killed it in A Deadly Adoption, a super cheesy, super dramatic and totally amazing Lifetime movie that premiered on Saturday. Spoiler alert! In the anticipated film, which may or may not have been inspired by a true story and was so hyped up that it received billboards in prominent parts of Los Angeles, the two played a married couple whose marriage suffers after Wiig's character nearly drowns, killing their unborn, second child. The two, parents to a Type 1 diabetic little girl Sully (Alyvia Alyn Lind), attempt to adopt a baby. And who should show up one day but the lovely Bridgette (90210 alum Jessica Lowndes), a gorgeous woman who says she's six months pregnant and is aching to have lots of kids one day, just not now. They really want to adopt her baby (Sarah gives her the once-over, like "Yep, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect face, Mommy likes"), so naturally, the two sweeten the deal by extending an offer to have her stay with them. Oh, and she's really sweet and there's no way she's secretly a total psychopath. That never happens in Lifetime movies. This is going to work out great! The movie was written by Andrew Steele, who created the comedic miniseries The Spoils of Babylon and used the be the head writer on SNL, where Ferrell and Wiig began their onscreen acting careers. The movie has a lot of important lessons (and generalizations) you can learn. Here are five of them: 1. Fake pregnant bellies are made really well these days Oh, you thought Bridgette was really pregnant! Silly! That's a fake, padded belly, and everyone totally bought it. Except, one day, little Sully catches her in the act. Bridgette then manipulates her into keeping her little secret between the two of them. Sweet-talk and threats. She'll be Mommy of the Yea Continue reading >>
Reviews For The Easily Distracted: A Deadly Adoption
Title: A Deadly Adoption Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote: "Everything has a Pat Boone-ish Quality." Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Three ABC After School Special logos out of five: Brief Plot Synopsis: Grieving couple welcome mother of baby they're adopting in to their home, with Lifetime results. Tagline: "The birth of a plan gone wrong." Better Tagline: "Lifetime finds its Sharknado." Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Robert (Will Ferrell) and Sarah (Kristen Wiig) live in Storm Lake with their daughter Sully (Alyvia Alyn Lind). They are, however, haunted by an Incident From Their Past; namely Sarah's miscarriage after falling off their dock (that railing was rotten and you knew it, Robert!). Hope arrives in the form of Bridgette (Jessica Lowndes), a sweet girl who has agreed to let Robert and Sarah adopt her unborn child. Unfortunately, Bridgette isn't really Bridgette, and she shares a Hidden Past with Robert that threatens to tear the family apart(TM). "Critical" Analysis: Yes, I'm reviewing a Lifetime Movie this week. You'll have to seek your Ted 2 write-ups elsewhere. I'll say this about A Deadly Adoption, it's exactly what it aspires to be. Which is to say, an overly melodramatic (occasionally to the point of absurdity) potboiler in the vein of My Step-Son, My Lover or Co-Ed Call Girl or basically any movie that's ever aired on the network. This is important because if you're watching ADA expecting something from Ferrell or Wiig on the level of Anchorman or Bridesmaids, you're going to be sorely disappointed. That's not to say there aren't moments that are sublime in their ridiculousness. Several characters, including Robert, make "jokes" about killing Sarah, and Bridgette's attempted seduction of Robert includes the exchange: "The life of Continue reading >>
Fug The Fromage: Lifetime’s A Deadly Adoption
I haven’t read any reviews of A Deadly Adoption, the supposed parody of Lifetime movies starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, and yet I know I’m not the first person to note this: What was the point, exactly? It’s an honest question. There’s little merit in or purpose to a parody unless you have a larger statement to make about something, but I don’t get the impression Ferrell and Wiig have anything to say at all here except, “Tee hee. Lifetime!” So why do it? It can’t be nostalgia-driven, because Lifetime movies still happen (Bella Thorne is in one this week, in fact, that appears to involve dancing and DRUGS and TEARS). It isn’t any kind of larger statement about the Women In Peril trope. There are a couple moments that appear to be poking fun, if you look hard enough, but otherwise it plays straight. And there’s the rub: The problem with aping a Lifetime joint is that you can’t do it with subtlety, or else it just plays… like a Lifetime joint. Having said all that, let’s examine just how Lifetimey this sucker is. Will Ferrell plays Robert Benson, which I kept shortening in my head to Bob Benson, as in the target of Pete Campbell’s snippy “NOT GREAT, BOB,” from Mad Men, and now I keep picturing this movie with James Wolk in it and mmm. Ferrell’s Bob Robert Benson is cloaked in the kind of hair and beard that bespeak the aging frontman of a Bee Gees tribute band who still plays at the local watering hole on the second Wednesday of every month. Our opening scene is shot in a bucolic family yard by the lake in a small town, where several friends gather as Will juggles a baby and flatly delivers information about his life: He’s an author and budding financial guru; he loves his daughter and his wife (“Nothing’s gonna pull me away Continue reading >>
