Baby Mama (2008)

This is another flick my 15 year old granddaughter drug me to, kicking and screaming (practically). It sounded DUMB, but she kept whining and I caved in. Well, guess what? I LOVED it! I was laughing so hard she kept banging me all through the movie to shut me up (saw it in the theater).

I see it got some less-than-wonderful reviews, and, as we know, everybody has different opinions.It begins with a single 37-year old career woman who is suddenly bitten by the baby bug and she knows her biological clock is ticking. She tries finding a "donor," but that seems to scare away her dates. She tries a sperm bank, looking for a suitable specimine who looks like he might produce a handsome child. Then she considers invetro but the doc tells her she probably can't get pregnant anyway because her uterus is T shaped. This leads her to seek out a surrogate mother to carry her child for her.

Now I agree, this doesn't really sound funny but it is. Tina Fey is great as the wanna-be momma. A yoga version of Steve Martin with a long ponytail is her boss as she becomes Vice President of Development of a large organic health food store chain. Sigorney Weaver runs the surrogate agency and for a cool $100K, will fix you up with a "thoroughly screened" surrogate :-). I don't know everyone's name but the surrogate is a hoot, and her and Tina clash constantly, even to the point where they have to both attend a conflict support group. The surrogate has a greedy boyfriend, too. Greg Kinnear turns up in the movie, too and I just love him in the movies. The friendly doorman at Tina's hotel has a cool part, too. It's really a great movie and has a lot of fine actors in it. Kathy W gives this a big thumbs up!

Baby Mama is a cute film with a few good laughs and some essentially entertaining comedy. It's by no means going to be "movie of the year;" but it isn't a flop, either. Baby Mama gets its strength from some excellent acting and the plot moves along at a good pace. My basic regret is that it could have been so much funnier than it was. It is an ambitious film, too, in that it tackles a serious issue through comedy. Sadly, it doesn't completely accomplish either goal. Sigh.

When the action begins, career woman Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) realizes that her biological clock is ticking fast and she doesn't have the one thing to make her feel truly happy and complete--a baby. Everywhere Kate goes, she sees babies and she adores them. Eventually, Kate finds out that she can't have a baby even through artificial means; and then she goes to a fancy agency run by Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) to find a surrogate mother.

Naturally, Chaffee Bicknell reassures Kate that the $100,000 fee for getting a top "quality" woman to carry her baby for nine months is well worth it--and then Chaffee steers Kate right toward a somewhat sleazy woman named Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) who is posing as a model woman to carry another woman's baby. Angie's common-law husband/boyfriend Carl (Dax Shepard) isn't any more sophisticated or much better than Angie.

Time goes by and Kate and Angie live together when Angie has a break up with Carl. This provides mild comic relief with the predictable conflicts two people face when one (Kate) is a highly educated, straight laced and uptight career woman while the other (Angie) lives for singing along with her "American Idol" video game while munching constantly on potato chips, eating all types of junk food and even drinking! And yes, there's a bit more comic relief one night when Angie and Kate go out dancing--but it's just not as funny as it could have been. Sigh.

Of course, the plot can go anywhere from here. Will Kate's baby arrangement work out? Will Angie and Carl ever divulge their huge secret to Kate? What about Angie's pregnancy--how does Kate help out with that? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch the movie and find out!

Look for a great performance by Tina Fey as Kate; and Greg Kinnear gives a terrific performance as Rob, a guy Kate becomes romantically involved with. Steve Martin also fits in well as Barry, Kate's boss at the health-food company.

Overall, Baby Mama gets a pat on the back from me for some good aspects--I liked the acting and the plot moves along well. However, as a comedy it falls short of my expectations although the subplots involving Carl and Angie's "secret" and Kate's romance with Rob are fairly well done. Take in this movie on a rainy afternoon if you've already seen some better films first. Baby Mama is one flick you should see--but only if you get a completely free opening in your schedule. Walk, but don't run to see this film.

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The theater i saw it in was completely full, a huge surprise because I wasn't expecting a big interest in the film and there were severe storms outside. But the movie was a huge surprise, I laughed the whole time at the mixture of silly gags and very smart humor. The whole audience loved it.

And as much as I've loved all the raunchy comedies out lately, this movie was the PERFECT Anti-Apatow.

Tina and Amy had great chemistry and the supporting cast was great, including a decent performance from Steve Martin and a hilarious character performance from Sigourney Weaver.

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It's already been said that the script was weak for this film. I concur. I believe Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, if not the best female comedians ever produced by SNL, they are most certainly among the top 4 or 5. That's why it's such a shame they didn't have a great script to help make this a great comedy. Sometimes mediocre acting can be elevated by a good script, but seldom can a poor script be saved by the actors, however good they may be.

Tina Fey should never agree to take on another comedic role without serious control of the script she's too good a writer to risk her career to a bummer like this one. And she and Poehler have such wonderful chemistry & splendid timing together, it's just a shame this movie wasn't what it might have been.

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To its credit, "Baby Mama" is not your typical one-joke movie starring "Saturday Night Live" alums. It's more of a one-and-a-half joke movie. In "Mama", Tina Fey's OCD career woman, unable to conceive and unwilling to wait for an adoption, hires Amy Poehler's ADD surrogate mother to carry her baby. How will this odd couple survive nine months together? With hilarious results, of course. Well, moderately hilarious, at least, thanks in large part to its two seriously talented comedic leads. This contemporary comedy draws our attention to the business of babies. It does so however in such a hackneyed fashion that if it weren't for the talented mama's at the forefront of it all, it would be little more than a painful delivery.

Personally I feel that "Mama" is written, with one contrivance too many, by Michael McCullers who co-wrote the last two "Austin Powers" movies. Mr. McCullers makes his directorial debut here but, even at 96 minutes, "Mama" eventually runs awfully thin. There are certainly some good moments, particularly when the two leads are given time to riff off each other. Ms. Poehler, in particular, is given a wide berth (pun intended). Ms. Fey however, so winning on the small screen, is put to the test here. As the consummate straight-woman, her range (and the script) is too limited to inject any real depth into the material. "Mama" treats the sensitivity of its topic with kid gloves it's missing Ms. Fey's deft comic hand (the one that has made "30 Rock", against all odds, one of the best comedy on television). Even 1987's similarly-themed Diane Keaton vehicle "Baby Boom" held more weight. Even without a gestation specialist.

Like I said before Michael McCullers made the comedy here far too broad and predictable, robbing the talented actors of anything with which to play. I don't know if someone at Saturday Night Live had a surrogate, but that idea certainly was kicking around the set. I would recommended this film only if you have a few lazy days put aside.

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