Excellent but underrated film

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I don't know why some reviewers here try to make you believe this is a parody or whatsoever. It isn't a parody nor a comedy. You could think otherwise when you see that Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig are playing in it but don't get fooled. It's just a terrible movie, categorized under drama and thriller. And if you think you will watch a thriller then you will get fooled again because this is one of the worst. The longer the movie goes on the worse it gets. It is really painful to watch. Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig should just stick to comedy. That's what they are good at and that's the style they are known for. Will Ferrell is an absolute disaster in A Deadly Adoption. I really felt sorry for him. Avoid this movie at all cost.

This TV movie was a bit of a strange one, it was advertised is if it was a serious dramatic film, but you cannot ignore the fact that two comedy stars are in the leading roles, which made you question whether this film is a joke, I had to watch and decide for myself. Basically Sarah Benson (Kristen Wiig) is a successful organic food vendor, her husband Robert (Will Ferrell) is a best-selling author and finance guru, their life was rocked by a tragic accident, Sarah was near an unsafe dock and fell into the water of Storm Lake, the trauma caused her to lose their second child in pregnancy, she is no longer able to bare children. Five years have passed, Robert has become reclusive and recovering alcoholic, he has been sober for six months, he and Sarah are looking to adopt an unwanted child, but have not been satisfied by any suggested birth mothers. Then they meet seemingly sweet and innocent attractive young woman Bridgette Gibson (90210's Jessica Lowndes), in the final months of her pregnancy, she claims to be living in a homeless shelter, Sarah and Robert decide to give her the bedroom their lost child would have slept in, she will stay with them until she gives birth. As time goes by however Bridgette is obviously not all she seems, six-year- old daughter Sully (Dark Skies' Alyvia Alyn Lind), who Robert is over-protective of because of her diabetes, is the first to spot that Bridgette is not pregnant at all, she has been wearing a fake enlarged belly pad, she lies to the girl that she is pregnant, but that she would not be believed. Bridgette has another agenda entirely, she and her tattooed hoodlum boyfriend Dwayne Tisdale (Jake Weary) are scheming to get money from the family, the intend to kidnap Sully perhaps for ransom, but also Bridgette has her own reasons. It is revealed that in the past when he was a writer they encountered each other and he made love to her, but he left her after a short time to be with Sarah, she lost a baby that she was pregnant with, she wants both revenge, and perhaps to try and get closer to Robert again. All the secrets and lies come spilling out from all sides, Robert has to try and protect his family, Bridgette is crazy and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants, and Sarah is caught in the middle, there will be deadly consequences for all involved in the complicated situation. Also starring Mousehunt's Debra Christofferson as Ellen Macy, Bryan Safi as Charlie, Erik Palladino as Sheriff and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine's Carolyn Hennesy as Debby. Ferrell and Wiig are reasonably good at playing serious, Lowndes is too soapy to be believable as an antagonistic bitch, this apparently is supposed to be a humorous imitation of those late 80s and 90s films with twisted affairs and evil characters playing happy families, it does have moments inspired by Fatal Attraction or The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, but it is not quite executed as well as it could have been, you can see the funny side of it though as it is awash with clichés, not a completely terrible parody psychological thriller. Okay!

Will Ferrell tries drama here and he is quite effective as an alcoholic writer deeply affected by the loss of a child when his pregnant wife falls off a dock in a freak accident. As a result, he becomes a doting, over-protective father to his surviving child, a diabetic.Unable to have more children, the couple bring into their home a supposedly young, innocent pregnant girl, with the hope that they shall adopt her child.The film takes on familiar Lifetime themes of someone coming into your life and wreaking havoc along the way. Then there is always the ironic twist in their films. The girl is anything but innocent, yet alone pregnant as she plots revenge for having had a tryst with Ferrell years before, leaving her pregnant and also losing the child.

Anticipated this movie. Very disappointed. If this was intended to be a spoof of Lifetime's melodramas, it failed abysmally. Waaaay too subtle for me.Script - Stunk. Could have been written by a team of 12 year olds, stupified by PopTarts and Dr Pepper. Generic dialogue and plot. A 'thriller' with no thrills. Predictable. Included every stereotype and cliché. All, I assume, intentional to elicit booming laughter. A fail.Note to writer, Andrew Steele (former writer for SNL): If parody was your objective, exaggeration....blowing things out of proportion.... is needed. That was missing....so the viewer was left to make some kind of sense of it, one way or other. Not an enjoyable task. Irritating.Acting - Stunk. Looked forward to seeing Wiig and Ferrel either in a spoof or in serious roles. Still waiting. Robotic acting with painfully slow takes (meant to be funny?) and little emotional range (same reason?) Caricatures? Missed the mark by miles.Directing - Stunk...ie...Closely following the bad guy's car on a dirt road and parking a stone's throw from his cabin...in day light? Really? Really? Kid is missing and Mom is not moved a bit.Neither comedy or drama....though the family's extended 'dance' scene in the end was worthy of a smirk.If the whole thing was a 'gag'...success at last! You made me gag.Could have been a clever parody. Wasn't. A waste of time and talent.