Fey, Poehler a good team
in ‘Baby Mama’

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

The chemistry between two former Saturday Night Live co-stars delivers big laughs in Baby Mama. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler used to co-anchor SNL’s Weekend Update together, so the rapport was already established between them. While Fey has moved on to TV’s 30 Rock and Poehler continues on SNL, Baby Mama is their first venture together on the big screen and, fortunately, it is a successful one.
Set in Philadelphia (but filmed mostly in New York with a few exterior shots of Love Park, the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania), Baby Mama tells the story of a thirtysomething unmarried executive who has just decided she wants a child.
“Some women get pregnant; I got promotions,” states Kate Holbrook, VP of a Whole Foods-like grocery chain.
Kate (Fey) decides she’s tired of the corporate ladder and ready to have a baby, but artificial insemination doesn’t work for her (her uterus is T-shaped, making it a million-to-one chance of her ever getting pregnant) and the wait for adoption is five years.
Kate decides her best option is to use a surrogate mother, and she hooks up with Angie (Poehler) through an agency. Angie is Kate’s polar opposite, thus setting up an Odd Couple scenario when they eventually move in together.
Angie’s a South Philly girl who maintains a diet of Dr. Pepper and Tastykakes with an ulterior motive for carrying Kate’s child. Fey easily pulls off the mild-mannered, sensible executive and is the perfect foil to Poehler’s effortless loud-mouthed, immature girl.
Kate helps Angie clean up her act a little by suggesting she go to school, while Angie helps Kate loosen up by taking her out to a club. They bond over a karaoke video game while singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
Writer-director Michael McCullers (a former SNL writer) takes the movie in some unexpected directions, and there’s a few plot twists to make it more than what it seems on the surface. The plot twists are a good thing, though, and don’t bring down the movie.
Baby Mama’s supporting actors, Sigourney Weaver and Steve Martin, add some laughs. Weaver plays the overly fertile head of the surrogate agency and Martin is Kate’s creepy boss who insists on staring into Kate’s eyes as a reward for her coming up with a good idea.
Underused is Romany Malco (from The 40-Year-Old Virgin), who plays Kate’s doorman and dishes some helpful advice in the form of funny one-liners to Angie. Greg Kinnear also has a small role as lawyer-turned-smoothie shop owner and a love interest for Kate. His character felt more like a caricature than a real person, hanging around only to make the plot go in forced directions.
Fey and Poehler bring what could have a bland baby movie off the page and onto the big screen — and do a great job with what they had to work with. The only knock against Baby Mama is the easy and tidy little Hollywood happy ending.
However, I won’t fault that too much since the rest of the movie is witty and well-written. Baby movies are nothing new, but one that can bring something new to the table and make me laugh is always a winner in my book. ••
Movie Grade: B+