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Michael McCullers, Baby Mama
04/26/2008 Baby Mama seemed to have the right ingredients for the making of an enjoyable comedy. It stars Tina Fey, who has proven with "30 Rock" that she has the comedic acting chops to play the straight man capable of delivering big laughs. By her side is fellow Saturday Night Live colleague Amy Poehler in a film written and directed by Michael McCullers, another SNL alumnus. Adding to that, funnyman Steve Martin (yet another SNL alumnus) and Sigourney Weaver have brief turns here as two very different types of bosses. While this may all seem to point to extreme hilarity on the horizon, what we get instead is a hit-or-miss comedy that is ultimately forgettable and, worst of all, not very funny. Kate (Fey) really wants to have a baby. She can’t help herself from smiling whenever she passes by mothers with their newborns, nor can she resist from going so far as to smell a baby on the elevator. Unfortunately, she’s infertile, thus unable to produce children of her own. After adoption doesn’t work out, she decides to hire a surrogate mother. Enter Angie (Poehler), the exact opposite of Kate in almost every way: loud, unsuccessful, and devoid of any rules and restrictions. What starts out as a bit of a rocky start between the two eventually turns into friendship. But a major secret that could offset the plan in motion is revealed, and it drastically changes everything. Fey, like she does in "30 Rock," plays the straight and narrow character here again. She’s easy to like and even easier to feel for. There are moments in the film that seem almost identical to those captured in the NBC series. One instance in particular is when Kate goes out to a club for the first time in a long time, with the slow motion camera forcing us to take note of just how awkward this event will be. But Kate is no Liz Lemon. While both characters are successful single females making it through in a male-dominated society, Kate is not funny or witty. In the grand scheme of things, she’s really just kind of pathetic and sad, thus making it that much easier to sympathize for her. Fey’s character Kate is not the downfall here just because she’s not funny. Angie is the one who’s supposed to make us bust out laughing. But more often than not, she doesn’t. It’s obvious that as soon as we’re introduced to her, we’re to ready ourselves for some off-the-wall humor. But Poehler is hardly ever funny. On the contrary, she’s rather annoying and juvenile, seeming to try every trick in the book to produce a good streak of laughter. She becomes more tolerable towards the end, when the film trades in its attempts at humor for a good dose of sappy and cheesy moments. Dax Shepard, playing Poehler’s deadbeat boyfriend, is not too much better, but at least with him, we only have to deal with his character in bits and pieces. Steve Martin is the one consistent piece of the film. Playing Fey’s eccentric boss (complete with a ponytail), he delivers the only real chuckles in the entire movie. Sigourney Weaver makes a humorous first impression, but her character is never really given a whole lot to work with after that. Rob (Greg Kinnear), the protagonist’s love interest, is, like Kate, easy to like, but his character doesn’t have any real depth to him. McCullers’ script probably would have been better served had the majority of the actors written their own segments themselves, something the SNL members wouldn’t have too much trouble doing. The screenplay is relatively uneven, lacking of any real wit or humor, and fairly predictable. Some moments seem primed to be uproarious, but they end up falling flat, like the court scene, which comes off as a little too zany and frivolous. Overall, Baby Mama doesn’t deliver. Despite the seemingly foolproof pedigree of SNL cast members working with each other, the film just doesn’t work like it should. There are plenty of both smart and mindless comedies out there that actually produce the expected laugh-out-loud moments you’d expect. Seek those out. They might actually be worth your time. Comments [post a comment]Comments are closed |
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
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Baby Mama Tina Fey Amy Poehler SNL Cinema Review