Post by BIGFANBOY on Apr 25, 2008 3:10:49 GMT -5
BABY MAMA
Review by Gary Dean Murray
Tina Fey is a rarity, a comedy writer who has become a star. Most writers toil behind the scenes, crafting humor for others to deliver. Conan O’Brien is probably the best example of a writer who has stepped in front of a camera to much success. Tina Fey, the first head female writer for Saturday Night Live truly came into her own when she took over the Weekend Update Desk. A few years, Amy Poehler took the co-anchor slot giving America a twin belt of female comedy. It worked in spades. Since Tina left SNL, she wrote Mean Girls, easily Lindsey Lohan’s best movie. Also Tina created a little show based on her years at SNL called 30 Rock, which won the Emmy. Now she is back on the Silver Screen, this time just as an actress in the mostly funny comedy Baby Mama.
The story of Baby Mama is a paint-by numbers screenplay. Tina is Kate; a late-30’s something who after climbing the corporate ladder has decided she wants a baby to complete her life. She works at a ‘whole foods’ style grocery chain run by a long-haired hippie guru (the scene stealing Steve Martin). Her doctor (John Hodgeman) ‘doesn’t like her uterus’ and after some failed attempts at sperm donors, she decides to go the surrogate mother route. Enter Angie (Amy Poehler). She is a very white trash woman who lives off Dr Pepper and junk food. At first apprehensive, Angie agrees to carry Kate’s eggs.
Well, Kate and Angie do not see eye to eye on things like eating well and pre-natal care. Angie has a blow-up with her live-in boyfriend and moves in with Kate. These two get along like Tom and Jerry, or The Odd Couple. The head of the surrogate agency (Sigourney Weaver in a one joke set-up that is used over and over again) encourages them to work together as one. Their oil and water mixture drives most of the comedy. Complications come in when Kate meets a local Juice Bar owner (Greg Kinnear). This former lawyer has his store just a stones-throw from the newest enterprise that Kate is planning. Anyone who has ever seen a movie knows where this is going.
And that is the only problem with this film. It is as obvious as playing a game of tic-tac-toe. About five minutes into this exercise, one can tell every plot point coming. There are truly no surprises in this story. But, the actual screenplay has some very funny one-liners and some great characters. Tina and Amy are a perfect comic duo, playing off each other and never trying to out perform each other. In so many little roles of Baby Mama are SNL and Comedy Central characters, each given a moment to deliver comic bits.
Tina Fey knows she isn’t a great actress and doesn’t try to hide it. She basically plays herself in every role she has had on screen. But, with her captivating smile and girl next door charm, she is a winner on. She can take some weak material and make it work. Amy Poehler is an amazing comic talent. Her bright-eyed stunned look milks laughs at every turn. Her character is more of a comic sketch than a full-blown thought out performance, but she does seem to be having fun by playing dumb. In a flip to a traditional film, Greg Kinnear gets ‘the boyfriend’ role. He is just a tag along in this entrogen driven work.
Director/writer Michael McCullers does a fine job in getting comic performances from his cast. While his direction skills are somewhat weak and his shot selections a bit pat, he plays to the strengths. He just lets the cast take over and deliver funny lines. While this is not a great motion picture, it is a funny little movie. It has wit and charm and its distractions are few. A good solid spring comedy that will be lost by the time the big cinema guns of May are thundered.
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