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Starring
Tina Fey
Amy Poehler
Dax Shephard
Steve Martin
Sigourney Weaver
Greg Kinnear
Directed by
Michael McCullers
Final Grade:
B-Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference
a review by Heith Carnahan
The Rundown
The enormously talented Tina Fey is Kate Holbrook, an extremely successful Vice President of a grocery chain, and she's always put her career first. Now, at the age of 37, she's single and trying to have a baby on her own. A variety of factors puts her chances at many-many-many to one against, and as a last-ditch effort, she begins looking into surrogacy.
That's when she meets Angie (Amy Poehler). Angie comes off more as a low-rent trailer type than anything else, but that's who the agency matches up with Kate, and after several meetings, the two inexplicably decide to move forward with surrogacy. But Angie soon turns out to be a bit more than Kate bargained for, and a few surprises later, Kate's left to wonder if she'll ever be a mother at all.
Just a bit... off
Although Baby Mama was fun enough for what it was and features a very solid, reliable cast, something about it just felt a bit off, comedy-wise. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are two of my all-time favorite SNL alums, and each on her own can be hilarious beyond the telling of it. But together, at least in this picture, they don't quite add up to the sum of their parts; that is to say, the comedic chips didn't all fall quite where I'd hoped, and I came away feeling like the film could have been more.
Fey herself is given very little of the funny, and what funny there is belongs almost entirely to Poehler. Hers are, of course, capable hands in which to entrust your film's comedy, but putting all your eggs (so to speak) in one basket is a risk, and it's one that doesn't pay off here. Poehler's character isn't likable enough to carry the whole movie, the script isn't funny enough to put on one person, and although the movie is pretty decent overall, the comedic potential is wasted to a large degree, and it just won't turn out to be the laugh-fest most people expected. Also, between you and me? The story was a tad predictable; I had the basics figured out with about an hour to go.
Steve Martin, another SNL alum, has a supporting role as the bizarre owner/CEO of the company Kate works for; his contribution, surprisingly, adds very little flavor and no laughs to the film. Greg Kinnear doubles as the Kate's love interest and the owner of a smoothie shop, and Dax Shephard shines as he always does, this time as Angie's muscle-car boyfriend-slash-common law husband.
The Bottom Line
It's enjoyable enough. But don't get your hopes up about a comedy riot. On that front, there is no one home.
-- Heith Carnahan, heith @ movie-popcorn.com