Baby Mama

BABY MAMA-PG13 for crude and sexual humor, language, and a drug reference-Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, and Dax Shepard (with Sigourney Weaver). COMEDY

First, I must say there are some strong Saturday Night Live influences here (Fey and Poehler, and some staff). That was a good thing, at least for me. SNL has always been original and amusing. I originally saw this in the theatre. Probably the only movie I’ve seen in the theatre without Mike. I went with his mother and his three sisters, all who were pregnant at the time (oh, no, actually, Kesha had already had Joey…). They thought it would be funny to see this movie, in particular. I thought it didn’t look very good, but wanted to participate in the outing, and so I went. And yes, I was amused. It wasn’t the world’s best movie, but it was laugh out loud in several scenes, thanks to Amy Poehler, who is incredibly funny, and the doorman, and Dax Shepard, who also was in Without a Paddle. Not to shrug off Tina Fey’s performance, but she was more of a stabilizing force throughout the movie, and although funny, her lines were not laugh out loud, nor do I think they were intended to be.
Kate (Fey) is a single ambitious career woman working for a health food conglomerate, and decides she wants a baby but can’t have one. She hires a surrogate (Poehler), who happens to be from a much … different class. The class differences, along with the fact that her surrogate is irresponsible, a junk-food junkie, completely chaotic, and basically Kate’s polar opposite, creates a setting for some laughable moments as they try to get through the 9 months until delivery. There were a few times that were cringe-worthy where I thought they might have gone too far, like the scene when Angie decides she will carry Kate’s baby. The words she uses to let Kate know she has made her decision, and what that decision was, although not profane by any stretch of the imagination, were just a bit much for me. My husband laughed out loud, as he cringed. And yes, you can’t have a movie like this without some political agendas. Surrogacy? Artificial insemination? Natural childbirth? Okay, so this was funny (to me). In birthing class, the instructor says, “How many of you are planning on natural childbirth?” And everyone in the class raises their hand except for Angie and Kate. The instructor, who has a terrible lisp, is very pleased, and says “good for you!” to many people. She follows up and says, “Now… how many of you are planning on drugging and poisoning your baby with toxic chemicals during delivery for your own selfish comfort?” And Angie, sitting on one of those big exercise balls, raises both hands in the air, and screams as you would at a football game “whooo!!!whooooo!!” And of course she is the only one, and everyone just stares silently. Angie is still pleased with herself, completely unaffected by the lack of popular response. This was probably the most amusing part of the entire movie. And sadly, maybe of my last three weeks. It’s worth the rental. It isn’t the best movie you’ll see this year, but it’ll make you laugh at least once or twice if you’re grumpy, and will keep you laughing if you’re not.