Maybe Baby review

Sam and Lucy Bell (Hugh Laurie, Joely Richardson) are bright, thirtysomething media darlings - he's a TV Commissioning Editor for the BBC, she works in a theatrical agency - who seem to have the perfect life: great jobs, a swanky apartment down by the river, matching motorcycles and a love for one another that is just as strong as the day they married.

More than anything, Sam and Lucy want a baby, and so they embark on a rigorous schedule of love_making dictated by ovulation charts rather than passion. They try everything to conceive and get themselves in the mood - from sexy underwear to coupling on lay lines to New Age chanting - but nothing appears to work.

In desperation, they deliver themselves into the hands of Dr James (Rowan Atkinson) who suggests sperm tests and possibly IVF as the way forward.

Unfortunately, the endless medical tests soon take their toll on the couple's relationship.

Sam vents his frustration by penning a screenplay based on his current predicament: a comedy about a couple trying for a baby. Despite the protestations of Lucy and best friend George (Adrian Lester), Sam perseveres with the idea, secretly dipping into his wife's diaries for dialogue for his female character.

Meanwhile, Lucy's hormones are all over the shop and she finds herself increasingly attracted to the star client at her agency, suave and debonair actor Carl Phipps (James Purefoy) - a real charmer who senses an opportunity to talk his way between Lucy's sheets.

Can Sam and Lucy weather their current emotional storm and keep their marriage afloat or will the stress of the IVF treatment prove too great?

Writer-director Ben Elton strikes a pleasing balance between the comedy and drama, fleshing out the Sam and Lucy in broad though intimate strokes and slowly gaining our affection and sympathy for them. The laughs are frequent and evolve from the couple's predicament, or Elton's sardonic insider's view of the entertainment industry (his portrait of the inner workings of the Beeb is far from flattering).

However, underlying the humour is a serious issue which, having gone through IVF himself with his wife, Elton is able to make funny without being insensitive.

Laurie is a natural leading man, possessing an Everyman quality and an endearing vulnerability which will pleasantly surprise cinema-goers expecting a pure comedy performance. He's completely at home with the Elton's particular brand of humour - everything from verbal quips to slapstick. Richardson is equally sweet and charming, beautifully underplaying the comedy and convincingly portraying a young woman whose life is slowly falling to pieces because the one thing she desires most in the world is just beyond her grasp.

They are surrounded by a bewildering array of cameos (Emma Thompson as a New Age guru, Dawn French as an Australian nurse, Joanna Lumley as the tough-as-boots lesbian manager of Lucy's theatrical agency) which are all huge fun, but tend to slightly distract and detract from the realistic feel of the film.