2008 Woodie Awards
Oh, 'Baby'
A pregnancy movie that isn't a bundle of joy
Alex Plimack
Arts | 4/24/08
Look. Another pregnancy comedy.
After the success of "Knocked Up" and "Juno" comes "Baby Mama," the fourth movie in the past year that uses the impending birth of a little bundle of joy as the crux of the comedy (the other being the forgettable and abysmal "Brothers Solomon").
Tina Fey is Kate Holbrook, a successful 37 year-old business woman ("Some women got pregnant. I got promotions"), who wants a baby, but can't conceive on her own because of her t-shaped uterus that her doctor doesn't seem to like and she can't get an adoption approved. So she goes the surrogate route, employing the help of Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) and her agency, which pairs her up with Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) and Angie's husband Carl (Dax Sheppard).
Seems funny enough, right?
Almost.
"Baby Mama" has all of the makings of a decent comedy, and most of the elements gel together well. But there's something missing: something that doesn't give it that extra bump (pun intended) to elevate it above mediocrity.
Fey showed in "Mean Girls" and has continued in "30 Rock" that she was worthy of leading-lady status. And she definitely holds her own in "Baby Mama." But she simply cannot carry the deadweight that is Poehler. I am admittedly biased when it comes to Poehler, as she has perpetually annoyed the living shit out of me every Saturday night. It would be nice to see her learn some restriction in her "acting." It's her "look at me!" erratic mentality that failed in "Blades of Glory" and she does the same here. She tries to walk all over Fey's subdued methods.
As the plot progresses, Angie leaves Carl and moves in with Kate. Kate hopes the two can bond, because after all, Angie is carrying Kate's baby. And the script employs a classic comedy technique: the double act. Fey is supposed to be the straight man, with Poehler as the funny man. It's a tried-and-true technique done by the likes of Laurel and Hardy and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But Poehler insistently walks all over Fey's toes in their version of the act and it makes it fail.
After the success of "Knocked Up" and "Juno" comes "Baby Mama," the fourth movie in the past year that uses the impending birth of a little bundle of joy as the crux of the comedy (the other being the forgettable and abysmal "Brothers Solomon").
Tina Fey is Kate Holbrook, a successful 37 year-old business woman ("Some women got pregnant. I got promotions"), who wants a baby, but can't conceive on her own because of her t-shaped uterus that her doctor doesn't seem to like and she can't get an adoption approved. So she goes the surrogate route, employing the help of Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) and her agency, which pairs her up with Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) and Angie's husband Carl (Dax Sheppard).
Seems funny enough, right?
Almost.
"Baby Mama" has all of the makings of a decent comedy, and most of the elements gel together well. But there's something missing: something that doesn't give it that extra bump (pun intended) to elevate it above mediocrity.
Fey showed in "Mean Girls" and has continued in "30 Rock" that she was worthy of leading-lady status. And she definitely holds her own in "Baby Mama." But she simply cannot carry the deadweight that is Poehler. I am admittedly biased when it comes to Poehler, as she has perpetually annoyed the living shit out of me every Saturday night. It would be nice to see her learn some restriction in her "acting." It's her "look at me!" erratic mentality that failed in "Blades of Glory" and she does the same here. She tries to walk all over Fey's subdued methods.
As the plot progresses, Angie leaves Carl and moves in with Kate. Kate hopes the two can bond, because after all, Angie is carrying Kate's baby. And the script employs a classic comedy technique: the double act. Fey is supposed to be the straight man, with Poehler as the funny man. It's a tried-and-true technique done by the likes of Laurel and Hardy and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But Poehler insistently walks all over Fey's toes in their version of the act and it makes it fail.
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