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Mama told me not to come!It’s a trap! Don’t do it!By Robert J. Sodaro Baby Mama: Rated PG-13 (96 Minutes) Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Romany Malco Directed by: Michael McCullers
Ah, the pleasures of motherhood. Changing poop-filled diapers, cleaning baby throw up out of your hair, 2:00 a.m. Feedings, wailing infants, sleepless nights and then they grow up into rebellious teen who want to borrow the car, won’t clean up their rooms, and date/hang out with those horrendous Wilkerson kids...oh wait, that last one could just be me. Still, you get my point. Well, it is precisely this wonderful sense of fulfillment that writer/star Tina Fey is attempting to recreate on-screen with her first big-screen vehicle. (Personally, I always enjoyed comedian Rita Rudner comment on the subject of kids, “My husband and I don’t have any children. We haven’t decided between kids and a dog. We don’t know if we want to ruin our lives or our carpet.”) Me personally, I ruined my life; my younger decided to ruin his carpet. At any rate, Fey plays Kate Holbrook, a 37-year-old, successful VP of a large organic food company (a very restrained Steve Martin plays her new-age, California-style loopy boss — more on that later). Up until now Kate hasn’t wanted kids (go back and re-read the first paragraph), but apparently her biological clock has just kicked into overdrive. Everywhere she looks, she sees the cute, adorable faces of cherub-faced infants.
However, it turns out that she can’t get knocked up, something to do with the shape of her uterus. So, desperate to conceive, she turns to a surrogate firm helmed by Chaffee Bicknell (Weaver). So Kate gets paired with Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler) who proves to be something quite other than what she presents herself as at first blush. Still, Angie is not the only one presenting less than her true self to others. Along the course of the way, Kate is building her boss (Martin) a Whole Earth-style mega store in a traditional Baltimore neighborhood that has fallen on hard time and is ripe for gentrification — much to the inhabitant’s dismay. Sill, these are not evil corporate drones here, they really do want to be a part of the evolving character of the upscale neighborhood so Kate winds up getting involved with one of the local merchants (both professionally, and personally). Needless to say this wounds up complicating her life even more. To be sure this is a modern-day, formulistic screwball romantic comedy; complete with hidden agendas, oddball characters, and a fair dose of random silliness, all of which contributes to a very enjoyable evening out at the movies. Cute, fun, and lighthearted, with a little bit of social commentary; what more could you ask for from a romantic comedy? Go and enjoy. __________ This entire article is copyright (c) 2008 Freelance Ink, All rights reserved. It cannot be reprinted without specific, written permission from the author. Robert J. Sodaro has been writing professionally for over 20 years. During that time, his movie reviews and articles have appeared in numerous publications, as well as on the web; currently his reviews appear on the Web here and in print in More Sugar. Questions? Comments? Queries? Head over to PopThought’s film forum, log in, and have your own say.  Add A Comment to this article
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