Rental Review: Baby Mama
30 Rock is consistently hilarious with wise cracks and witty dark humor, so I expected alot more from Baby Mama with Tina Fey being involved. However, being that she did not write or direct the film, it explains alot about why I was disappointed.
I felt alot of the strongest parts of the film were wasted, while less humorous jokes went on too long. Ok, the lamaze coach has a lisp. Got it. Dull. And that explains the whole movie, dull, lackluster, mediocre. I kept waiting for that moment that would wow me but didn’t get it.
Starring Tina Fey as a 37-year-old woman tired of waiting to meet a man in order to have a baby she goes the regular route of trying everything else first, adoption, in-vitro, etc. When nothing gets her the positive sign she is looking for, she turns to the surrogacy agency spearheaded by Sigourney Weaver’s character.
In comes the “hero” baby mama. Right off the bat, we know this is just not going to be a pleasant journey, its going to be an insane ride with Amy Poehler.
So, when the predictable drama ensued, “baby mama drama,” with the obvious twists (there are 3 or 4 in there that you will see coming each time) I resigned myself to an unoriginal tale of 30 something women who choose career over love.
Is Tina Fey really saying all we are doing is just waiting for that guy? Sadly, maybe that is it. Maybe we have all been so well trained to wait and expect that even as we appear to lead our lives, really we are just waiting for that “happy ending” when our own Greg Kinnear will appear and be so understanding of us. Whatever.
The movie plays like an SNL skit that goes on too long – if this was a 20 minute short with lines like, “bitch, I don’t know your life,” or “my avatars dressed like a whore” and pleasant cameos from a variety of SNL vets like Steve Martin, it may have been perfect. But instead, we got your basic run-of-the-mill comedy-drama.
Strongest point of the film – the two women learn not to cheat each other over men but to develop a real bond and help each other as friends to improve their lives. We can all use a little more of that.
