by Ted Sherman

Created on: July 12, 2008

As a guy, just the title of this film should have kept me far, far away from the theater. However, when the spouse uses the old guilt routine with, "We never go to the movies together anymore" and "We'll be out for dinner anyhow, so don't you think, just this once, we can go to a kind of movie I like".

With a sense of dread, I shelled out the required $12 each to see this first-run 2008 gem, settled down in my seat clutching a $6 tub of unhealthy salted, faux-buttered popcorn and prepared for the awful ordeal.

OK, guys, I have to admit it, although never to my spouse, but I was pleasantly surprised about the cutesy little tale of Georgina, a British woman who desperately wants to get pregnant, and almost any guy will do. Assuming a charming almost-Cockney accent, American actress Heather Graham is very convincing and funny in the role.

Heather first hit stardom ten years ago as the aptly-named Felicity Shagwell in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." However, this movie is about a different kind of shagging, if you know what I mean. Heather the actress is a bit older than the mid-thirtyish Georgina character of the film, but still smashingly beautiful. Any guy should be more than happy to volunteer to help her attain her goal of motherhood.

The plot hasn't much mystery to it, but it's fun to go along with with the idea. Georgina's best gal pal Klem is an attorney who takes her to a fertility clinic, where Georgina is told she has just that one good egg left. She must get it fertilized by some stud within four days, or she will never have kids. What follows is the mission that if Georgina can't eventually reach her conception goal, it won't be because she hasn't tried with every inappropriate yutz she meets.

The plot gets a bit puzzling, and I shared some of Georgina's frustration, when her live-in housemate Zak, who could have done the job in the blink of a body part, packs up and leaves. He wants nothing to do with fatherhood. Why would any guy, especially this schmuck of a sponger, abandon the rich, bright, sexy Georgina?

The Zak character makes unsuccessful movies and would starve to death if he didn't live with this sharp lady construction company owner. Maybe the misconception here is that men who're afraid of family commitment have any brains beyond their groins.

As a bedroom farce, "Miss Conception" may not be of the frenetic quality of one conceived by Georges Feydeau, but it does succeed. And, sorry, guys, but "Miss Conception" has no gunfights, murders, world crises, alien beings or masked slashers. It is merely a very refreshing and enjoyable movie. Just make sure no other guys see you going into the theater.

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