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"Baby Mama" Review

by Jane Boursaw on April 26th, 2008

Casting two funny women together in a movie doesn’t always work, but in the case of Baby Mama — and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, both Saturday Night Live alum  — it works like a charm. Not only that, many of my favorite actors are assembled in this movie, and that’s not an easy feat. 

Tina Fey (30 Rock) plays Kate Holbrook, a woman who’s put off having kids while she worked her way up the corporate ladder at Round Earth Organics, a company based in Philadelphia and owned by a New Agey guy named Barry (Steve Martin with a long, gray pony-tail).

More after the jump…

But Kate’s clock is ticking, and she’s been eyeing babies in strollers or strapped to their moms waiting in line at Starbucks. It doesn’t matter that Kate’s not married, but she’s got some uterus issues and the adoption process is long and stressful.

So she decides to go the surrogate route, contacting a company run by the oddly fertile older-woman Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver). Kate ends up with a “baby mama” named Angie (Amy Poehler), who’s hooked up with a guy named Carl (Dax Shepard). Basically, they’re both slackers who need the money because his inventor-entrepreneur thing isn’t working out.

But when Angie walks out on Carl, she ends up living at Kate’s posh pad, and the two couldn’t be more opposite. Adding awkwardness is Kate’s new boyfriend, Rob (Greg Kinnear), who doesn’t know about the surrogate plan.

Maura Tierney (E.R.) plays Kate’s sister, who has a happy brood of her own; Siobhan Fallon plays a goofy, weird-accented Lamaze instructor; and Romany Malco plays an ever-wise doorman.

I love that both Fey and Poehler are beautiful but still have that girl-next-door look. Like they could be your best friends in real life. They’re funny without really trying to be funny, and that’s always the mark of a true funny-girl.

One scene that cracked me up is when in-labor Poehler is being pushed down a hospital corridor in a wheelchair, trying to grab IV bags from other patients and screaming, “It feels like I’m sh**ing a knife!” And in Lamaze class, upon hearing that Kate should rub her vagina with olive oil, Angie says, “Can I just spray some Pam down there right before the baby arrives?”

This is the sort of dialogue that runs throughout the movie. Angie is like My Name is Earl’s Joy (Jaime Pressly), only with more heart.

As mentioned, many of my favorite actors are in this movie, and they all work well together (ok, I’m having a little trouble getting past the Steve Martin pony-tail). This movie is funny (have I said that before?) and sweet. Definitely worth a look if you need a little cheer in your life — and who doesn’t?

Images: Baby Mama, Universal Pictures, 2008 

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