Writer Jack Olsen's glossy script goes light on logic, credibility and mining some of the story's deeper ramifications, as it works its way toward the inevitable, largely predictable final showdown.
This is Cassar's second film this year -- the first was the exquisite Western Forsaken -- and confirmation that he's a filmmaker of uncommon talent and versatility.
The movie boasts strong performances by Chestnut and Hall (both of whom are always welcome)... Ultimately, though, all are undone by the tiresome familiarity of Jack Olsen's predictable script and Jon Cassar's limp direction.
Perhaps you were wondering if it were still possible to wring any suspense out of an unbalanced-third-wheel plot. "When the Bough Breaks," about a surrogate pregnancy gone horribly wrong, has a definitive answer: No, it isn't.
Thrillers in which seemingly harmless outsiders worm their way into safe, secure, middle-class homes and then threaten them were popular in the '90s; this one feels like a pale copy.
