Branching Out could have been a nice little family drama, but they ruined it by putting the plot on autopilot and letting it settle into your average predictable Hallmark romance.
Amelia (Sarah Drew) is a single mother by choice. Her nine-year-old daughter Ruby (Cora Bella) is assigned, as a school project, to make a family tree.
This bums Ruby out because Amelia’s “an only child, and her dad went away when she was little.” Moreover, Ruby’s “Nana passed away when I was two. On her father’s side, Ruby’s a test-tube baby, “So it’s really just my mom and me.”
Were Deadbeat Dad and Nana also only children, as well as orphans raised by wolves? That’s about the only way that Ruby’s ancestry stops there. Maybe a little research will help Ruby, and perhaps Amelia too, discover their long-lost roots?
Not quite. They decide to instead search for Ruby’s biological father. Amelia is reluctant, due to her insecurities, but also because her “donor” wished to remain anonymous. Amelia does play Ruby a record of the guy talking about himself, which kind of defeats the purpose of anonymity.
Ruby persuades Amelia with a “ten-point presentation.” “Point one, I am not a baby. This should be our decision together. Point two, school project. You’re always saying how important learning is. And this school project is about learning who I am.” Points three through ten, unknown. Was it that hard to make it a three-point presentation and come up with one more point?
(Ruby also asks Amelia — as if she had any way of knowing —, “Is my donor clumsy like me? Is he always crashing into stuff?” Never mind that the scene wherein she asks that question provides the only example we ever see of Ruby being clumsy. Similarly, Ruby is more than once described as “hilarious” — and she is, but only if you like to laugh at kids who don’t know who their dads are, which I don’t, and you shouldn’t).
Amelia’s BFF Maura (Kaley McCormack) suggests a “genetic registry test;” sort of like a genealogical DNA test, except it finds you “confirmed relatives.” In Ruby’s case, her paternal grandmother Sofía Cruz (Candace Kirkpatrick).
How is that possible? Sofía also took a genetic registry test (“So other relatives could find us”). Presumably with the same company Amelia used. Moreover, Sofía is a businesswoman with a very strong online presence, and her family farm is a mere 20-minute drive away (according to Google Webb Maps). Ruby’s father is Sofía’s son T.J. (Juan Pablo Di Pace), who still lives at home. Isn’t all that convenient?
T.J. is the non-union Mexican equivalent of Andi Mack’s dad. A laidback guitar-playing bachelor inexperienced in the ways of parenting, he is nonetheless well-meaning and open to developing a relationship with Ruby.
Ham-fisted plot contrivances aside (and there are a few more, not least of which is the fact that Amelia and T.J. happen to be approximately the same age and reasonably attractive), a serviceable movie could have been made about T.J.’s efforts to juggle his burgeoning career as a touring musician and his newfound fatherly duties, and Amelia overcoming her daddy issues and realizing that history doesn’t have to repeat itself.
For that to happen, there’s no need for Amelia and T.J. to end up together. He can be a good father to Ruby without having to be Amelia’s boyfriend/husband. By the same token, the screenplay makes it a point to establish what a good job Amelia has done on her own; clearly, she doesn’t need a live-in father figure for Ruby.
Perhaps it’s just me; then again, I can’t be the only one who feels that getting romantically involved, nine years after the fact, with the stranger who donated sperm for your daughter’s conception, is kind of really fucking creepy.
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