Baby Mama Review

Tina Fey is hot. Just need to get that out of the way and let you know where I’m coming from, I think Tina Fey is way hot. Funny, attractive, intelligent and those glasses! I loved her on Saturday Night Live, she was the only reason I watched Mean Girls and I feel truly blessed to have her in my home every week on 30 Rock. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Baby Mama as soon as I heard about it last year. Amy Poehler is also a gifted comedienne and I loved her chemistry with Tina on Weekend Update as well as her appearances in everything from Southland Tales to of course, Arrested Development. I had high expectations of this movie and gratefully, it did not disappoint.

The story begins without much preamble, opening on Kate (Fey) as a career woman who just never got around to having a child and feels her biological clock ticking. Exhausting all methods to become pregnant, she seeks a surrogate mother and finds white trash, foul mouth, future Jerry Springer guest Angie (Poehler). They move in together, with Kate taking care of both mother and child and the two of them clash like a modern day female version of Felix and Oscar. The movie is funny with the two opposites becoming friends, touching with its sister solidarity and even poignant when dealing with the real and serious issue of infertility. Of course, the leading ladies bounce off each other effortlessly and the best scenes in the movie are simple dialogue between the two whether they’re at home, in birthing classes or having a girl’s night out at the club. The plot does slow at times, with a few subplots involving Kate and Angie’s respective male counterparts. As funny as both Tina and Amy are, (and smoking hot in Tina’s case.) neither of them are very gifted actors. This does not make the movie suffer because the parts that are strictly story move quickly and are insulated with enough jokes to keep the comedic pace moving along. It does become slightly predictable near the end, but the movie was still absolutely entertaining and engaging. But any movie with Steve Martin in it, NOT playing someone’s dad, is worth a ticket.

I know that for me, the movie really hit home because despite being ten years the junior to Kate, I too have had ‘nesting fever’ or the urge to have children. I suppose because my parents had me when they were only 21, I had expected to be married and have children by now. It’s even more unsettling when most of the people you graduated from high school with are either spouses or babies or both. The only thing more disturbing than that is when someone I had been with has a kid and I think to myself, “Wow! That could have been my kid.” I do think a lot about having my own children someday and it has ended a few relationships of mine in the past. I think about rubbing someone’s feet, going to the store at odd hours and attending Lamaze. One of my favorite episodes of Frasier is when Daphne is pregnant and Niles starts his sympathy pregnancy. I want to do that! I want to be able to be a good father, a sympathetic man and the movie really let me see it from a woman’s point of view without being melodramatic, strongly vaginal or insulting my intelligence. The movie does not take lightly the subject of infertility and really examines Kate’s intentions and borderline obsession with having a baby. The best things in life cannot be forced, but can come to you with positive thoughts and proactive behavior. I don’t want to wait to be Kate’s age to have kids, but like her, maybe one day, when’s its right and in a way you might not expect, I too can experience the pitter patter of little feet. And maybe, God willing with some as hot as Tina Fey!