Baby Mama

Saturday Night Live alumnae Tiny Fey, Amy Poehler and writer/director McCullers give birth to a light comedy about surrogate motherhood. Fey plays Kate, a smart and wealthy single 30something who hears her biological clock ticking and so hires Angie, a flaky white-trash girl from South Philly (Poehler), to carry her baby from insemination to delivery. This is a female buddy picture with Fey and Poehler playing the odd couple. On paper it works. On screen the laughs are hit-and-miss. The SNL stars have good chemistry as friends, particularly in a sequence where the free-spirited Angie pulls the uptight Kate into a nightclub to get her drunk and dancing. However, the two don’t milk the class differences between them enough to generate gut-wrenching laughs. Another problem is that while Fey is believable as a successful exec, Poehler never quite convinces that she hails from the wrong side of the tracks. In fact, Steve Martin, who cameos as Kate’s hilarious new-age-y boss, steals the show from Poehler. Also, the story is predictable and the ending feels forced. The alternate ending included on this DVD is more credible. The audio commentary by the three SNL alumnae, plus Lorne Michaels, SNL creator and the film’s co-producer, is much like the film itself: cheerful and breezy. The typical "making of” featurette has been spread across two similar documentaries, including an embarrassing homage to Michaels and SNL. This segment was sponsored by Volkswagen, so it’s no wonder it feels as fake as a corporate video. The deleted scenes offer a few more laughs and also one serious scene where Kate’s sister (played by Maura Tierney) delivers a strong speech about the responsibilities of motherhood. Overall, this is a nice DVD package of a nice movie. Perhaps too nice.