Film Reviews

Baby Mama

• Rating:
• Director: Michael McCullers
• Starring: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shephard
• Details: USA / 99mins / (12A)

Tina Fey takes a break from multiple duties on 30 Rock to headline another theatrical comedy - but not pen it, as she did with the enjoyable Mean Girls. Whatever way you look at it, Baby Mama is trying very hard to be seen as a smart comedy, along the lines of the much-celebrated 'Judd Apatow School of Humour'. It deals with the successful, smart and attractive Kate (Fey), who, after years of trying the traditional route of conceiving, is told she can’t host offspring in her womb - and therefore, must go through the messy route of using a surrogate (Poeher). But complications ensue when the white-trash surrogate dumps her deadbeat boyfriend and shacks up with Kate, wrecking her apartment and literally pissing in her sink. Fey and Poeher were regulars on Saturday Night Live, a beacon for the comedic cream-of-the-crop, where they honed their comical timing and met this film's writer/director McCullers. But while McCuller's script is often amusing, it’s never particularly hilarious, and Fey is far too talented a comedian to be playing the straight character again. Where Apatow excels in his flicks is having the likeability of his characters transcend the rudiments of the plot, and make for a right laugh riot. Mama always feels like there’s a plot development around the corner about to railroad proceedings, and that distracts from the comedy too often. Fey is always watchable, and Poeher is suitably over the top; but you just don’t buy this situation happening. There’s also a hugely-underused Maura Tierney as Kate’s sister, and Greg Kinnear as the obligatory meat - both of whom serve very little purpose in some badly underwritten roles. Steve Martin and Dax Shepard offer most of the laughs - the former as Jane’s boss is a constant crack-up on screen, and looks like he’s having more fun than he’s had in years. Despite unfulfilled potential, Baby Mama is still worth a gander, and will dutifully please the chick flick brigade, while offering sometime amusement to the rest of us. If only Fey had brought her typewriter...

Review by Mike Sheridan