Baby Mama

Movie Information

The Story: A 37-year-old single woman discovers she's infertile, and hires a white-trash woman to be her surrogate. The Lowdown: A pleasant yet forgettable comedy carried on the strength of Tina Fey’s lead performance and the film’s supporting cast.
Score:

Genre: Comedy
Director: Michael McCullers
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver
Rated: PG-13

With films like last year’s The Brothers Solomon, Knocked Up and now this week’s Baby Mama, it seems that pregnancy is on the verge of becoming the new hot commodity in comedy. What separates Baby Mama from these other films (other than people actually going to see it, unlike The Brothers Solomon), however, is that it involves actual, fully formed adults. In a world where the mere sight of Will Ferrell naked is supposed to induce fits of laughter, it’s a relief to see the kind of genial maturity that exists within Baby Mama.

This isn’t to say the film is anywhere near perfect. Directed by first-timer Michael McCullers (who also wrote the movie, and who had a hand in writing the Austin Powers films and the unfortunate Thunderbirds (2004)), the film is generally more pleasant than it is funny, and the story is too predictable. But there’s an agreeable nature to the movie created by the performances and the chemistry between Tina Fey (Mean Girls) and Greg Kinnear that makes Baby Mama an enjoyable—if inconsequential—time at the movies.

Fey plays Kate, a 37-year-old businesswoman whose biological clock has suddenly started ticking. However, having a baby isn’t as simple as one might think, since Kate isn’t married and she’s found out she’s infertile, making artificial insemination impossible. In her quest to have a baby, she goes to a surrogacy agency and is assigned white-trash Angie (Amy Poehler, Blades of Glory). After initially hitting it off well, it’s not until Angie leaves her common-law husband (Dax Shepard, Let’s Go To Prison) that she finagles her way into living in Kate’s apartment and creating the odd-couple pairing that the first third of the film is built upon.

Once past this, the film reveals the first of a handful of painfully obvious twists that leads to the film’s painfully obvious storybook ending, but not before it turns into a romantic comedy (with Kinnear as Kate’s love interest) combined with the story of the newly found friendship between Kate and Angie. While the movie’s nothing new, it’s the strength of the performers and their relationships that keeps it working (and it probably helps that both Poehler and Fey worked together for about five seasons on Saturday Night Live). This isn’t to say that there’s any award-winning acting going on, but there is a believability and authenticity to it all that you rarely get in this kind of comedy. Even Steve Martin’s completely pointless and tiresome bohemian health-food magnate isn’t enough to derail the film. Sure, the film is unsurprising and conventional, but it never pretends to be anything else, and that’s almost as important as the fact that it’s also not one of the numerous terrible comedies that have come through theaters of late. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference.

SHARE

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

5 thoughts on “Baby Mama

  1. Will Ferrell naked doesn’t make you laugh?

    The title of this movie keeps popping up in my Google analytics. I guess folks are Googling “Baby Mama” and getting some “Edgy Mama”!

  2. Ken Hanke

    Will Ferrell naked doesn’t make you laugh?

    I can’t say it’s my immediate reaction.

  3. I must have seen a different “Baby Mama” last weekend, because I didn’t detect any chemistry at all between Tina Fey (who is my TV girlfriend, by the way) and Greg Kinnear. They were both funny enough to keep the movie from imploding, but I just wasn’t buying it. Having said that, they did have considerably more chemistry than, say, Richard Gere and Jodie Foster did in “Sommersby”…

    Better Will Ferrell than Harvey Keitel, that’s what I say.

  4. Justin Souther

    “I must have seen a different “Baby Mama” last weekend, because I didn’t detect any chemistry at all between Tina Fey (who is my TV girlfriend, by the way) and Greg Kinnear.”

    Well, it’s certainly a subjective observation. Though I’m probably a bit more apt to cut them some slack when compared to some of the other movie’s I’ve seen, like, say, NEVER BACK DOWN or SUPERHERO MOVIE. Really, it’s just nice to see grown-ups in a comedy.

    “Better Will Ferrell than Harvey Keitel, that’s what I say.”

    I think Nicole Kidman would say the same thing.

  5. John Edward

    A Family starts with a baby. Surrogacy Nepal helps to start your own family with our guaranteed surrogacy program. The complete package helps you to get baby.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.