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Review #638 of 365
Movie Review of Baby Mama (2008) [PG-13] 96 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $11.25
Where Viewed: Harkins Ciné Capri at Northfield 18, Denver, CO
When Seen: 26 April 2008
Time: 4:20 pm
DVD Release Date: 9 September 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Soundtrack: order the CD below
Directed by: Michael McCullers (debut)
Written by: Michael McCullers (Thunderbirds)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Amy Poehler (Horton Hears a Who! ) • Tina Fey (Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters) • Greg Kinnear (Feast of Love) • Dax Shepard (The Comebacks) • Romany Malco (Blades of Glory) • Sigourney Weaver (Happily N'Ever After) • Steve Martin (The Pink Panther) • Maura Tierney (Semi-Pro) • ()
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Click to see photos from the Premiere of Baby Mama
Click to read the spoiler points for Baby Mama
Tina Fey is hot, hot, hot right now, so whom better to cast in the role of an aging female corporate executive with an unlikable uterus (at least according to "I'm a PC" John Hodgman who plays, in this case a cameo role as the fertility specialist") who seeks out the help of surrogacy center to treat her lack-of-baby-itis. Kate Holbrook, vice president of Round Earth Markets, a Whole Foods-esque company founded by Barry (Steve Martin) whose grey pony tail and meta-baloney wisdom are about all we need to know to know this guy. Kate is his rock, bringing his ideas back down to the real world (and not the MTV kind, the real actual world). So as her life ebbs and flows from great promotion to more working evenings, her biological clock too has been ticking away. Her sister Caroline (Maura Tierney) has both a husband and kids, and this is now all that Kate wants or thinks about, having a baby, the husband is now optional. Fortunately, she is referred to Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) who runs the most expensive and supposedly exclusive surrogate clinic in Philadelphia. Her fee is $100,000, "…more that it costs to have a person killed," Kate exclaims upon hearing the figure. "It takes longer," replies the smug Chaffee who, it turns out, is freaky fertile for a femme fatale of her age. Nonetheless, Kate signs up and immediately starts getting interviews from potential surrogates. A visit from Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) and her common law husband Carl (Dax Shepard) ends with Kate hoping to put her baby in Angie's basket despite dozens of warning bells, cautionary flags, and blinking red alerts. Soon after, Amy is all signed up, the deal is sealed, Angie is pregnant, and things are moving right along. Not just in the baby-making area, but Barry has put Kate in charge of building Round Earth's largest and most eco-friendly store in an up and coming area of Philadelphia. In her quest to find the perfect locale, she stumbles upon a non-franchised juice and smoothie store, not to be confused with product placed Jamba Juice (getting a free plug here), run by former attorney, Rob (Greg Kinnear) with whom she has instant and surprising chemistry. Life, in other words, couldn't be any better. Famous last words.
No sooner does Kate seem capable of molding the world in her image, does Angie show up on the doorstep now officially separated from Carl and with no place else to go. What was once a film about a surrogate mom and a mom to be becomes a remake of the Odd Couple which, with all due respect to Mr. Neil Simon, has been made and remade and made over again about 100 times now and never as well as he did it. Sure enough, there's just about nothing these two women share in common when it comes to values, behaviors, and living habits. The only thing that can get Kate through this is the knowledge that when it's over, she'll have a baby and Angie will be gone forever from her life. But, Angie is harboring a secret and Kate could really use a friend as well as some loosening up a bit. So, more than a shared embryo will end up keeping them together for nearly the entire 9-month gestation period for an average human being.
Is Baby Mama, written and directed by Michael McCullers, an overblown "SNL" sketch that just won't die? Is it a witty social commentary and satire designed to poke fun at people who eat over-priced theoretically organic food or people who find themselves above adoption of already existing children in favor of creating expensive if not designer new kids of their own? Is it a tragic-comedy featuring two of the better comediennes of their generation? Is it a love story about a career woman who wakes up and finds her career has sunk her life, and she wants it back? "The answers my friend are blowing in the wind" to quote Bob Dylan, no seriously, the answers are yes mostly yes to all. Though some exaggeration and poetic license has been utilized according to the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, and maybe some of the pleading the 5th as well. Baby Mama has some really funny parts. That is not to say the film is really funny. The performances, for the most part, lack insight. There's no other way really to say it.
…a bit of aimless meandering…the film doesn't seem to know exactly what it's trying to be.
They are mostly shells and caricatures of real characters let alone real people. As much insight as is gleaned into the leading characters of Kate and Angie, sadly their lives are excusable clichés more than real. The same can be said for most of the other characters including Rob and Carl. Steve Martin's bloated cameo as Barry passes the eccentric realm and moves into Howard Hughesian. This was a role more meant for Robin Williams who can better play caricatures and make them believable. Tina Fey added little to her character that couldn't have simply been borrowed from her "30 Rock" character, and Amy Poehler tries hard to endow Angie with some semblance of dignity and pride, but it comes across as half-hearted. She's still waiting for the laugh track to kick in. Sigourney Weaver must have had fun with her role, though the incessant references to her character's advanced age for motherhood as condoned by the writer / director, came out as mean-spirited and slightly malevolent. The character men, actually, seemed more well-adjusted in both their behavior and actions. As these characters were probably more formally formed and less is required of the actors in the acting side of things. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do make for a good pair. It's just too bad their pair's been seen before, and while the ending is happy, it requires quite a bit of aimless meandering to get predictably there. Still, the film was far better than last year's
The Brothers Solomon which possessed a similar theme. The main problem stems from the fact that the film doesn't seem to know exactly what it's trying to be.
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Cast Members
Amy Poehler • Tina Fey • Greg Kinnear
Dax Shepard • Romany Malco • Sigourney Weaver
Steve Martin • Maura Tierney
Director
Michael McCullers
Writer
Michael McCullers
Review-lite
Baby Mama (2008) [max of 150 words]
Tina Fey is hot right now, so whom better to cast as aging female corporate executive Kate Holbrook, vice president of Round Earth Markets with an unlikable uterus (at least according to "I'm a PC" John Hodgman who plays, in this case a cameo role as the fertility specialist") who seeks out the help of surrogacy center to treat her lack-of-baby-itis. Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) and her common law husband Carl (Dax Shepard) are selected by Kate hoping to put her baby in Angie's basket despite dozens of warning bells, cautionary flags, and blinking red alerts. The film turns into a variant of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" shortly thereafter but without the clever Neil Simon dialogue. Still, the film was far better than last year's
The Brothers Solomon which possessed a similar theme. The main problem stems from the fact that the film doesn't seem to know exactly what it's trying to be.
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