Baby Mama

The premise of this movie seemed hilarious. A responsible woman who has unsuccessfully tried to conceive must rely on a surrogate to get the baby she so desperately wants - the only problem is that the woman carrying her child seems to be a child herself.

Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live) is Kate Holbrook, a successful, single executive who put her professional life ahead of the desire to start a family. Now in her late thirties, Kate’s biological clock has become deafening. When she learns that her oddly shaped uterus makes it unlikely that she’ll be a mommy (the scene w/ the GYN who tells her this news is hilarious), she decides to resort to alternative methods. Enter Angie (Amy Poehler, also of SNL) as a surrogate who doesn’t mind renting out her uterus for the right price. It’s funny because Kate and Angie couldn’t be more different from each other. Whereas Kate is straight-laced and “together,” Angie seems to be stuck in a second childhood. There are a couple of good twists that keep the story moving forward, and the movie wasn’t too predictable. It relied heavily on its premise but also showed Kate evolve from a total career woman into one that is more open for love and willing to let her guard down. Kate and Angie made a good yin and yang duo, with great comedic effect.

Of course I have a few quibbles, or else this wouldn’t be life and I wouldn’t be me. There were a couple of little racial jokes that I found rather offensive. That’s not to say that there wasn’t humor in the jokes, but it was the kind of humor that makes people uncomfortable. I’ll admit I’m sensitive to that sort of thing, and I don’t think it’s a reason not to see the movie. I just didn’t appreciate it, particularly because people tend to believe jokes that come from certain people, i.e. if Chris Rock makes a joke about Black people, Whites will probably think there’s a lot of truth there, after all Chris Rock is Black, right? So it must be true. Maybe, maybe not. Getting back to the movie, I have a problem with what I assume to be a White writer making a joke about the Black community and having a Black actor deliver the line, almost as if that will lend credence to the negative stereotype. Alright, I’m off my soapbox!

Go see the movie, it was good and it has a strong supporting cast featuring the likes of Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver (most recently of Vantage Point) and Greg Kinnear (Stuck on You). Over and out.