I can’t remember the last time I saw two different movies at theaters in the the same week, but I’m pretty sure it’s been at least 10 years since I’ve done it. Until this week, that is. Things have been unusually slow at work for the past couple of months, so I’ve had a lot more free time than usual. I decided to take advantage of that (plus an unexpected babysitting offer from my mom) and head out to the theater for a matinée showing of Baby Mama yesterday. While the film was mostly predictable and fell back on many clichés, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Kate Holbrook (played by Tina Fey) is a highly successful woman who has always put her career ahead of her personal life. But recently the promotions and the fat salary aren’t enough for her. Kate’s biological clock is ticking, and she wants a baby more than anything else.
Since she is not even dating anyone, having a baby in the traditional way could take years, so Kate starts to explore other options, such as artificial insemination. Unfortunately, she soon learns that due to a T-shaped uterus, her chances of having a baby on her own are “one in a million”. Disappointed but not ready to give up, Kate decides to check out a company that matches women like her with potential surrogates.
Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver), the president of the company, interviews Kate to find out her wants and needs, and then sends a candidate named Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) her way. Angie is a working-class (read: white trash) woman who is only interested in cashing Kate’s check so that she and her common law husband Carl (Dax Shepard) can move on to their next scheme. Kate and Angie are completely opposite in nearly every way, yet Kate agrees to hire Angie as her surrogate.
After Angie and Carl get into a big argument, Angie moves in with Kate. Once this basic setup is in place, the film goes on cruise control the rest of the way, showing various scenes of Angie and Kate’s clashing personality and lifestyles, as well as the beginnings of what will be a true friendship. The writer throws a couple of curveballs at viewers, but every single resolution is predictable almost as soon as the obstacle is presented.
My Reaction: With the way Baby Mama was written and structured, the film could have very easily been a total disaster from beginning to end. There really wasn’t anything original about the screenplay or the characters at all, and in fact while I was watching the movie, I got that overwhelming been there, done that feeling during a majority of the scenes. However, I think Tina Fey’s general likability helped make Baby Mama at least watchable, and on occasion, even enjoyable.
Perhaps my opinion about the movie is unduly influenced by the fact that I just started watching Fey’s TV series 30 Rock and love her work on that show. Fey essentially plays the same character in Baby Mama — albeit a richer, more competent version — so I felt as though I “knew” Kate already. As a result, I immediately liked her and was rooting for her throughout the film.
Sigourney Weaver’s character and Oscar the doorman were the only other bright spots for me, as everything else was just too unoriginal or annoying to be funny. Amy Poehler especially got on my nerves after only a few minutes on screen. I stopped watching Saturday Night Live about 15 years ago, so I’m not familiar with Poehler’s work on the show and concede that she might be funny in shorter, sketch-length doses. But in a feature film, she was simply grating.
Overall, Baby Mama wasn’t as entertaining or original as I had hoped it would be. Nevertheless, Fey’s presence made it at least watchable (for me), though if I could do it over again, I’d just wait to see the film on DVD. I give this movie 5.5 stars out of 10.