24 January 2014
It's been argued that stories revolve around seven basic plots but – jeez – one narrative seems to be exerting an especially strong pull at the moment. This is the second re-make, in a month, of Ken Scott's so-so 2011 comedy Starbuck, (the first being the Vince Vaughn vehicle, Delivery Man).
Yet again, a champion sperm donator – here a Frenchman, of Spanish stock (Jose Garcia) – finds out he's fathered 533 children, just as his girlfriend announces she's pregnant. What follows is often crude, manipulative and fetishises (biological) parenthood to an absurd degree.
Still, thanks to Garcia and director, Isabel Doval, there's a sweetness to the proceedings that makes you sort of glad it wasn't strangled at birth.
