Published by Linda on 01 May 2008 at 12:22 pm
Baby Mama
I had very low expectations for Baby Mama going into it, because the reviews were so uniformly unimpressed. I wasn’t as concerned about the reviews suggesting that it was predictable (because: duh) as I was about the ones that said it wasn’t funny. I had seen enough trailers with acceptably funny gags in them that it made me concerned that it was one where the entire movie was in the trailer. In fact, Tara told me that this was her worry, too. She also said the movie passed the test, though, so I figured I’d probably like it.
And I did. As one review I read had noted, most of what you see in the trailer is the first act of the movie, and I’m not wild about what they do with the story from there. It’s one of those where you kind of go “ugh” once or twice, because it’s just not a great story direction, and it feels like it’s going to take a while to play out.
But for me, it survives because Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are so funny. They’ve put Poehler’s biggest and broadest trashy moments in the commercials — for the most part, she’s kind of flaky and childish, but she’s not quite as stupid as you’d think from watching the ads. And it’s a good thing, because that would be really, really, really tiresome. I do think a lot of the jokes work — not all, but a lot. They get great assists from Romany Malco as the doorman (so funny) and Sigourney Weaver as the fertility specialist. Everybody seems to be talking about Steve Martin, but aside from one or two moments, his appearance did nothing for me. I do love Greg Kinnear — back to Talk Soup! — and he’s very, very charming.
I could give a whole speech here about the entire idea of late-thirties women being presented as always unfulfilled and always miserable and always lonely if they don’t have kids. I could explain to you how frustrated I am about the constant dichotomy between boring but driven suit-wearers on one hand and happy, earthy baby-havers on the other hand. I wish it didn’t feel like the story was playing so heavily into the baby-starved stereotypes that everyone in her thirties who doesn’t have kids knows all too well. I wish it knew better the subtleties of feeling like you would have been happy to have your life go one way but being perfectly okay that it went a different way, too.
But the fact of the matter is that it’s a movie about some issues fairly specific and personal to women, and it’s written by a male SNL writer, and given that background, it’s not too bad on this front. It could be much worse. It’s silly and obvious, but it did make me laugh enough to be well worth it. It’s not a great commentary on…anything, or a satire of…anything, and it could have been both. But as a series of jokes, it works. Tina Fey made me laugh, and Amy Poehler made me laugh, and I had fun. There are times when, really, that is the objective.
Rona on 01 May 2008 at 1:01 pm #
I’d like to hear any and all of those speeches. I saw the trailer for Baby Mama with Tina Fey’s 37-year-old childless character panicking about not having children and then someone on TV panicking about being 37 and having a boyfriend who wouldn’t commit to marriage or children (oh dear G-d–I think it was one of the Real Housewives of NYC)–right before I turned 38, without marriage or children! Clearly, I was at least a year behind on the marriage and children panic. I’d better get my sadness–and uterus–into gear. But . . . can’t quite do it. It’s not that I’m against having children, and it is something that I once thought for sure I’d do. But there are many ways to have a full, (mostly) happy and (mostly) satisfying life (I can’t imagine any life is unremittingly happy, satisfying, or easy), even if that life is not the one you once thought you wanted.
Intuitively, I know I’m not alone in this, but it’s good to have some evidence of it, too.
Sandy on 01 May 2008 at 1:49 pm #
The movie necessarily must play into the baby-starved stereotype, or else there wouldn’t be a movie.
Dewey on 01 May 2008 at 3:38 pm #
I don’t know about reviews being uniformly unimpressed as rottentomatoes has it rated at 61% with 64 positive reviews (out of 105). In any event, It was a really funny movie and I was thoroughly entertained.
jessica on 01 May 2008 at 4:40 pm #
I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with your thoughts on this, Linda. I laughed uproariously at most of the gags, especially when Amy Poehler really got going in her way, and I groaned at some of the story direction, and I left fairly satisfied overall. It wasn’t groundbreaking or anything and it could’ve been sharper and smarter and wittier, but it was good nonetheless and significantly funnier in a more consistent way than, say, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And that’s all I was looking for, when it comes right down to it.
Personally, I’d like to see a movie about a woman who’s convinced she wanted a baby and then finds out she didn’t, so much. But it really creates a certain sort of unsympathetic character in Hollywood’s eyes because you’re left with a woman who resents her children on some level and where do you go from there? I guess that’s why I’ve had so much trouble writing it.
blackbird on 02 May 2008 at 10:10 pm #
Well said. I’m so sick of people speaking about movies and the making of them as if they are curing cancer. Though this may be an ideal dvd rental for me.