Almost a Review of Baby Mama

Monday’s Movie For a A Novel Menagerie

Call me old fashioned, but in general, I prefer my movies taken in the theater. But for some reason this week I’ve watched more PPV movies, than I did all of last year.

Why did this happen? First, apologies to Sheri for immediately going off topic. I hope I make up for it by only calling this “Almost” a movie review of Baby Mama. See, a year or so ago, philanthropists we are, we finally donated our televisions which had been long awaited by The Smithsonian Institution, and did as many good Americans did during the 2007 holiday season, and put ourselves in debt to purchase the biggest baddest, most expensive television Discover Card would allow. For weeks, I would spend hours just taking in the beauty of each snowflake blowing onto the field during NFL games which until then, I had never watched in their entirety. I went back to following Young and the Restless. Horrified, I knew immediate and drastic measures were necessary.

I reclaimed the hours I was whiling away staring at the beautiful images of football, Victor Newman, Miller and Budweiser in 1080 LCD, and went back to reading. For the past week though, once again, I have found myself gazing at the television screen, toying with Pay Per View as a new possibility for addiction in 2009.

When Baby Mama came out in the theaters several months back, I seriously wanted to see it. Not seriously enough, however, after reading several unfavorable reviews. By the time I got to the neighborhood multiplex, it had apparently become necessary for Iron Man and Speed Racer to play on all 24 screens. But finally, this week, after a string of disappointing, fairly obscene indie flicks on PPV, I went for Baby Mama.

Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) is a successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby, but discovers she is infertile. Through a high falutin’ surrogacy agency she hires the rough-around-the-edges, Angie Ostrowski (Amy Poehler), to be her unlikely surrogate. When Angie breaks up with her common law husband (Dax Shepard), she moves in with Kate for the duration of the pregnancy. Exactly as one would expect from this genre, the plot is predictable and formulaic. What makes the film work exceptionally well is the rapport between the two female leads. I know this isn’t original, but Tina Fey is da bomb. Amy Poelher, even though she doesn’t have anything to do with NBC’s 30 Rock, is da dynamite.

This film is a chick flick in the sense that it stays consistent with a truly female point of view. No unnecessary raunch is tossed in, solely to appeal to a male demographic. Humm… Maybe this is why the mostly male reviewers didn’t much care for it? I’m not male bashing: I believe most real, nice, funny, smart men can enjoy Baby Mama in the same way that women can enjoy the silliest, most bathroom humored laden, “guy flick”. (I know there is a more fitting term for “guy flick,” but people, this blog is G-rated.)

Besides being fairly dense with funny lines and moments, the film exudes an overall warmth and comedic effect, that is no doubt due to writer/director, Michael McCullers excellent use of the two funny women. Well-pitched secondary characters round out the film, especially Steve Martin, hysterical as a zenny Dr. Wayne Dyer- type, complete with a grey ponytail. Please note I’m not at all impartial when it comes to Steve Martin. Sigourney Weaver, as the embarrassingly fertile woman of a certain age who operates the surrogacy agency, and Greg Kinnear, as the perfect single man to meet at a smoothie shop, also deliver likable performances.

I expected this movie to be something I could appreciate for the bargain price of $3.99 on my spectacular, not-so-small screen while wearing pajamas. That I found it to be one of the most satisfying comedies of last year? Pure bonus. Perhaps I should have waited to see Marley and Me in the privacy of my own home in several months on Pay Per View instead of crying my eyes out at the theater this afternoon. I’ll tell you all about it next Monday.

Note: I still couldn’t get A Novel Menagerie’s cute little popcorn icons to work, but I improvise and give this movie
4 out of 5 ears of korn