Baby Mama
I
guess it was just a natural progression that when Hollywood realized that
the wedding movie was like catnip to women, the baby movie was not far
behind.
Funny thing is, despite the fact that as a man the idea of a baby movie
sounds as appealing as going to a baby shower, most of the
recent wave of
baby films have actually been not bad at all. Knocked Up was a
little overrated, but mostly enjoyable. Juno was just
wonderful.
Now
comes Baby Mama, which is far from perfect but still an above-average
comedy.
Of
course, Baby Mama has a secret weapon – Tina Fey – who is quickly
becoming the go-to woman for Hollywood comedy. Of course, it seems a bit of
a waste to hire a brilliant comic mind like Fey simply as an actress and not
take advantage of her writing skills – as have been on ripe display
in Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls and 30 Rock.
However,
Fey is able to make the role much more interesting and likable than it has
any right to be (and I’d be shocked if she and fellow SNL castmate
Poehler didn’t do some heavy improv here).
Poehler is very funny, too; however, her character is more of a broad
cliché. An extremely well-done broad cliché much of the time, but it
doesn’t quite make the connection
that Fey does. We don’t believe in
her character,
so we don’t care as much about
her.
Fey
plays Kate – a Philadelphia-based business exec for a large natural food
store chain, who has become a vice president in her late 30s. After working
for years to break through the glass ceiling of business, she suddenly is
overwhelmed by the ticking of the biological clock.
Since she has no men in her life, she has a condition with her uterus which
makes getting pregnant unlikely and she works a busy professional schedule,
she ends up looking into a new company which is setting up women with
surrogate mothers.
At
first she hates the idea, but the smooth-talking head of the company
(Sigourney Weaver) convinces her that it is the perfect solution. Through
the firm she is introduced to Angie (Poehler), a white-trash blonde who is a
self confessed baby machine. Angie’s boyfriend (Dax Shepard) is a
self-centered con-man and when Angie breaks up with him, she moves into
Kate’s immaculate condo. But is she really going to give Kate the baby, or
is it all a scam?
In
the meantime, Kate’s life starts coming together, she is given more power
from her odd new age boss (Steve Martin) and becomes attracted to a local
owner of a juice bar (Greg Kinnear.)
The
roles seem a little familiar – Kate is a close cousin to Fey’s 30 Rock
character of Liz Lemon and Angie is similar to some characters Poehler
has done on Saturday Night Live. However, familiar or not, they are
mostly funny – mostly because the actresses are so effortlessly likable.
The
surrounding stuff is not quite so good. Weaver and Martin are giving their
all, but their characters are just a bit too quirky for their own good.
Kinnear, on the other hand, is sort of wasted in a completely generic
boyfriend role.
Baby Mama
occasionally gets too sappy for its own good and the humor can be overly
broad, but all things considered it is time well spent.
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©2008 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: May 5, 2008.
