stevechristian

Expert Rating:

5

(2008) Rated PG

Tina Fey
Amy Poehler
Greg Kinnear
Directed by Michael McCullers

Lets all face it, Tina Fey is on the rise. This alumni from Saturday Night Live is smart and sexy (very). Originally she made her name on SNL as one of the co-hosts of SNL News, then graduated to the position of "Head Writer" of SNL. From there she branched out into television in general as a producer of "Ugly Betty", a surprising award winner. Now with this effort she moves forward again into film.

A romantic comedy, "Baby Mama", would be better if it had had a Love-Labotamy. But still, "Baby Mama" wastes time with Greg Kinnear — a match that doesn't generate enough sparks to light a votive candle — when actually the movie's more interesting "relationship" is the one between Fey and Amy Poehler. No, there's no lesbian angle in the movie, but "Baby Mama" has been written so that the usual romantic comedy conventions — a secret that drives a wedge between two people, differences that make them on again/off again — apply to Fey and Poehler, not to Fey and Kinnear.

Simply put, Fey- A successful, single businesswoman dreams of having a baby, discovers she is infertile, and thus hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.

Not surprisingly given how well they worked together on "Saturday Night Live," Fey and Poehler are a great team. The fun of the movie is watching Fey's character, who's fairly similar to the one Fey plays on "30 Rock," bounce off Poehler's dopey slacker, who blurts out every thought that drifts into her head. Leaving messes everywhere and frequently spitting up food, Poehler is a 35-year-old infant, which works out pretty well, since Fey can practice her parenting skills on her.
 
Whenever "Baby Mama" is focusing on either or both of them, interesting things happen. They're so great together that you can't miss the huge contrast between their zippy scenes and the blandness of everyone else's. Therefore Greg Kinnear, one of my favorite actors, disappears before your very eyes.  I suspect Fey and Poehler, neither of whom is credited for the script, reworked some of their material. And that if they'd taken a stab at Kinnear's, that would have be funnier too.
 
All in all though, its generally a fun time.