Saturday, April 26, 2008

"BABY MAMA"

“BABY MAMA” (Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear & Steve Martin)

During the early stages of this movie, I was reminded of last year’s “Knocked Up” (Which I didn’t care for) Never having been a parent, I guess I just can’t relate to stories about people that WANT to have children (That’s not how it was in my day – I was an accident & my parents made sure that I knew it!) But somewhere along the road, “Baby Mama” gradually won me over and just when I thought all the best scenes had taken place – the normally mundane & predictable ‘rushing to the hospital to give birth’ sequence turned out to be laugh out loud hysterical – I really couldn’t tell you everything Amy Poehler said as she was being wheeled into the delivery room, I was laughing too hard.
The plot; Unmarried, successful business woman Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) wants to be a mommy but is told by her OB-GYN that her chances of getting pregnant are a million-to-one – due to her ‘T shaped’ uterus. Kate decides to hire a surrogate mother.
Sigourney Weaver, surprisingly enough, provides the first funny lines as the person who brings Angie (Amy Poehler) into Kate’s life as her vessel for ‘outsourcing’ the birth of her child.
Pretty, but ‘trailer-trashy’ Angie eventually moves into Kate’s apartment after leaving her ‘common law’ husband. At first, Kate is thrilled with the situation because now she can keep an eye on how Angie treats the body that is carrying her much longed for child. The movie then becomes a female version of the Odd Couple, with mildly amusing results.
What makes this film flow gracefully are the many fun & flawlessly performed supporting roles; Steve Martin as Kate’s ‘guru-ish’ boss is a subtle yet offbeat character that I was surprised to see since he wasn’t shown in the trailer; nor was Greg Kinnear as a small business owner/potential love interest for Kate. Romany Malco (from TV’s “Weeds” & “The 40 Year Old Virgin”) plays Kate’s doorman/buddy who discovers there’s more to Angie than meets the eye; or, actually that there’s ‘less’ of Angie than there should be.
Despite all the infant adoration going on, these characters didn’t annoy me as much as I feared they might. Even Angie’s greedy, ne’er-do-well ‘husband’(Dax Shepard) somehow becomes acceptable because the bottom line is – he is simply unable to rise above his low-rent upbringing, while Angie at least attempts to become a better person.
Once the ‘set-up’ is out of the way, “Baby Mama” is a consistently funny, & yes, heart warming film. With the exception of a useless segment where Kate & Angie go to a nightclub, there really isn’t a wasted scene, so I would recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable 90 minutes of light-hearted entertainment.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good review. You liked it better than I did. I think comedy is the hardest thing to pull off and actually be funny. It was good but I wasn't as impressed as so many others.

Anonymous said...

Not being a 'baby' person, I guess I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Amy Poehler's X-rated rant as she's being wheeled to the delivery room was probably the capper that turned it from a mediocre comedy to a good one. The fact that Tina Fey didn't have a writing credit also came as a bit of a shock because I thought she wrote EVERYTHING!

Anonymous said...

amy poehler for supporting actress golden globe for comedy/musical.

Anonymous said...

Eddie, she WAS the best part of the movie & it has been a very lean year for actresses so far, so who knows?