In what is quite possibly the most anticipated reunion of “Saturday Night Live” alumni since Wayne’s World, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunite for the first time since their stint behind the Weekend Update desk in their new comedy Baby Mama.
In Baby Mama, Fey, who also wrote and starred in Mean Girls and the Emmy award winning TV show “30 Rock”, plays Kate Holbrook, the newly promoted vice president at the organic food market Round Earth, who at the age of 37, decides that she wants to have a child. Unfortunately, it turns out that she is unable to conceive and decides to go with a surrogate mother. This unlikely surrogate comes in Angie Ostrowiski, played by Amy Poehler of Blades of Glory and Horton Hears A Who!, a Big Gulp chugging, PlayStation playing woman who after leaving her common law husband, moves in with Holbrook. While Kate tries to help Angie take care of the baby in any way possible, Angie tries to figure out the newly baby-proofed apartment while trying to help Kate loosen up. Together, they try to help and learn from each other while they both try to bring a new life into the world.
Fey and Poehler work well off of each other, much like they did at “Saturday Night Live” and show why they are considered by many the best Weekend Update correspondents since the days of Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin. For the first time, Fey is the star of her own film and does a great job as the lead in a film. Poehler is awkward and unusual, yet she is lovable and easy to see why Fey’s Holbrook would pick her to carry her baby, even with her crazy outer shell. Greg Kinnear of As Good As It Gets andLittle Miss Sunshine plays Rob, Kate’s new love interest. While he is generic as the romantic interest, he still brightens the film, as does Kate’s boss at Round Earth, Barry in an extended cameo by Father of the Bride and Cheaper By the Dozen star Steve Martin. Regular cameos by Romany Falco of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Without A Paddle’s Dax Shephard are fun and do add some laughs as do some surprises by other “Saturday Night Live” cast mates.
First time director Michael McCullers does not try anything special or groundbreaking in his directing, however in his writing, he tries to make a non-generic love story and succeeds and times but fails at others. Baby Mama starts off interestingly enough, yet starts to lag around half way through and never truly recovers. The mixture of comedy and drama becomes uneven and the pacing is not able to stay consistent for too long. Also as a writer for such fast-paced comedies as the Austin Powers series and “Saturday Night Live”, he needs to learn how to blend the comedy and dramatic elements more carefully for a smoother feel.
Baby Mama tries to make an original take on the romantic comedy genre by adding an unusual premise, but unlike recent pregnancy comedies like Knocked Up and Juno, it does not work quite as well. The great comedic talents that flood the film makes it enjoyable to watch with some laugh out loud moments, but it just cannot sustain throughout. Baby Mama is interesting enough, it just feels a bit premature.
Rating: C+
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