...then you'll probably find this film funny. I don't. It's a parody, after all, and Ferrell makes the mistake of playing it too straight, apparently believing that being good at being a bad actor will make it funny. It doesn't. It just makes it tedious. Kristen Wiig fares somewhat better, but her performance depends a lot on Ferrell, so she is limited in that respect. The child actress is cute but mumbles her lines, so we rarely know what she says. Sometimes that matters, mostly it doesn't. Some of the supporting players understand the assignment better that the principals. Brian Safi and Carolyn Hennesey know how to play it straight for humor, but they need someone to play off of. Jessica Lowndes, playing the villain of the piece, has the easiest assignment. All she has to do is be evil, exactly as she would in an otherwise straightforward version. Doing exactly that with Jake Weary as her scruffy boyfriend, she handles it well. To do a parody successfully, the creators must have respect for the original. In this case, it is unclear whether they do or don't.

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.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT - the following discusses plot points, but you might want to read on anyway to save two hours of your lifespan! Or don't read it, watch the movie, and then come back and read the reviews to see if you actually "got" this movie! This is also written to bring closure to those who have spent the two hours watching it.The overall plot was used previously in another Lifetime movie no doubt. Crazy girl, bad boyfriend fresh out of prison wanting his money, a child about to die because she needs her meds, and parents in a dysfunctional marriage with a secret held by one against the other allowing "crazy girl" to enter stage left, scene one. Is this movie a parody of Lifetime movies or other movies that revolve around "crazy girl" replacing a wife and making the wife's family her own? The predictable script does not let on to this possibility other than in a few spots such as Will Ferrell's character standing in the middle of the road to face off "crazy girl" without so much as a drip of blood coming from his two wounds, one of which appeared earlier as fatal. (It's highly unlikely that he'd be knocked out cold by two flesh wounds and even less likely that his wounds would both stop bleeding without immediate medical attention.) Another possible parody moment was the garage door opening scene. The garage was filled with far too much exhaust for any human being to emerge from it without hacking his guts out. Will emerging from a cloud of deadly exhaust appearing to breath normally, looked like Superman with Lois in his arms, back-lit with a glow. That smells of parody or very bad direction, take your pick. Will "speeding" off to the rescue in an incredibly slow moving boat with a very serious look on his face smelled like parody too.Still, most of the movie was not at all funny, or even suspiciously funny, so what was the point of that please? Furthermore, there was not a lot in the dialogue to suggest that this was in fact a parody. The sheriff asking after he had heard the entire story of Will and "crazy woman," (paraphrased) "Do you think they could be together?" could have been one such line. That must be ranked among the stupidest lines ever written in a movie, and if it was not in fact meant to be a stupid line appropriate for a parody, then we must conclude that the line is just an awful line. The movie is otherwise mostly predictable, with the "manner of pregnancy" of "crazy girl" being nearly the only surprise. Were you really surprised that the bad boyfriend was just behind the organic foods co-worker who had snapped one too many branches on his rescue mission? His death was not funny, just cruel. Where's the parody in that?The scene with Will's incredibly awkward dancing with his family that went on longer than any sane director would have allowed, just iced the cake of this movie's demise.In sum, this was either a poorly written parody or a poorly written violent though almost entirely predictable drama, acted about as well as it could have been acted (hence my higher rating than the 1 for the script).Note to actors: next time you might want to turn this sort of script down. Note to screenplay writer: you need a lot of practice. Note to viewers: I'd sorry for your loss...of time. And that is not a "spiteful comment," because I'm really, really sorry for your loss. Or is this just a parody of a hardhearted reviewer? You decide! ; )P.S. I think this movie was deliberately written to thoroughly confuse us all and is therefore brilliant! (Just kidding....but maybe it is...regardless, you'll never have closure on this movie or on this review. ; ))

I missed the April 1 announcement of this film. If I had seen it, I might have taken the TV guide seriously when it labeled this movie a comedy. (I thought that was a mistake.) I got through 3/4 of this movie thinking it was a worse-than-normal LifeTime movie.However, when Will Ferrell is kneeling over his unconscious wife and the cheesy music kicks in and he looks up and stares, it hit me. From there on out, it was obvious that this was intended to be a comedy from the jump and I had missed the joke until it was too late. Now I have to watch it again so I can laugh at the parts that I thought were just bad the first time around.