BABY MAMA (PG)

Director:
Michael McCullers

Starring:
Sigourney Weaver
Tina Fey
Greg Kinnear
Amy Poehler

Plot Summary:
Successful and single businesswoman Kate Holbrook has long put her career ahead of a personal life. Now 37, she's determined to have a kid of her own until she discovers she has no chance of getting pregnant. Undaunted, Kate allows working girl Angie to become her unlikely surrogate. But her well organised strategy is turned upside down when her Baby Mama shows up at her doorstep with no place to live.

Genre:
Comedy

Duration:
99 mins

Origin:
U.S.A.

Language:
English

Reviews:
Review by Louise Keller:
There are plenty of laughs in this likeable and uplifting comedy that puts its own twist on life, love, relationships and babies. Baby Mama offers a somewhat different perspective of motherhood spring-boarding from recent films like Juno and Knocked Up by incorporating elements which allow the concept to become broader. Michael McCullers' script unashamedly goes for the laughs with outlandish characters and ridiculous situations that are somehow credible in the context, and keep it real.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
This formulaic feel good romantic comedy delivers everything it promises with a streamlined screenplay about a single professional woman, Kate (Tina Fey) who at 37 is desperate to have a baby - and the complications that beset her plans. The story is strong and the characters are credible, if a little over emphasised in Hollywood's usual style.

Although men will probably find themselves resisting the film in the first act, with plenty of business about female fertility, the script soon broadens out and the inherent drama of the situation purrs nicely like an engine driving the comedic vehicle.

Review by Margaret Pomeranz:
BABY MAMA, stars TINA FEY as Kate Holbrook, the newly appointed Vice President of an organic food company.

She’s 37, the biological clock is ticking and although she desperately wants a baby nothing seems to be working. Her T-shaped uterus seems to block donor sperm so surrogacy seems to be the answer.

Enter Angie Ostrowiski, (AMY POEHLER), an underachiever who’s in a relationship with a loser, (DAX SHEPARD). It gets to the point where Angie has to move in with Kate. They are polar opposites.

Hovering around the edges is former lawyer turned fruit juice vendor Rob, (GREG KINNEAR). This is a warm, sweet funny movie.

The two women, TINA FEY and AMY POEHLER, are excellent, the roles were specifically written for them by their SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE colleague Michael McCullers who also directs, and he’s bothered to go beyond stereotype. Fey herself was a former head writer for SNL so she’s well aware of how comedy works.

The film is full of delicious minor characters like Kate’s doorman Oscar, played so well by ROMANY MALCO and Kate’s boss, a hippy-like guru played by STEVE MARTIN.

There are no hard edges to BABY MAMA, it’s just a delightful blend of odd-couple and romantic comedy.

****FOUR STARS!
MARGARET POMERANZ.
AT THE MOVIES.

Trailer: