When the Bough Breaks, directed by Jon Cassar, is a thriller that starts out slow, leaving you looking for the action, but gains speed and grabs your attention in the second half. Despite the slow beginning, the movie makes you want to know what happens next to the characters and desperately crave more and more action.

 The movie revolves around a young, successful couple, Laura and John Taylor, (Regina Hall and Morris Chestnut), who can’t get pregnant, so they decide to hire a surrogate mother, Anna (Jaz Sinclair). However, they soon realize that Anna wasn’t the right choice to give their last viable embryo to when she develops a crush on John, the soon to be father and begins to show her psychotic tendencies.

During the first third of the movie, I was waiting for the action to pick up for the really nitty-gritty to happen and for the plot to thicken. The intro and setup for the movie seemed to go on forever and ever. Yet, it was well worth the wait, when the ball is finally dropped, it falls hard. I would even say that the long wait made the action taste even sweeter. Cassar does a nice job of dragging the introduction out by showing the slow passage of time through Anna’s pregnancy, making the audience sit on the edges of their seats, waiting for the turning point.

All of the actors played their roles well, each of them thoroughly convincing the audience that they are a desperate mother, a frustrated father, or a young girl, literally crazy with love.

The thing that makes the movie work really well to keep the audience engaged is that Anna, the surrogate, under the law, has rights to the Taylor’s baby even though it isn’t biologically hers. Because of this, the Taylor’s have to keep Anna happy and healthy solely for the fact that she is pregnant with their child, the last hope of them having a family. In this situation, Anna holds all of the cards, creating a gripping story that has you rooting for Laura and John the whole way through.

Overall, I would give When the Bough Breaks four out of five stars. It was a dramatic, gripping thriller with a unique plot and a great movie to see that keeps the audience on their toes.