Tina Fey is extremely funny. Fans of her previous work in film and television know this to be true. That makes it especially important to note that though she stars in Baby Mama, Fey does not share any creative credits with the film's writer and director, Michael McCullers. Anyone anticipating a film as slyly satirical as Fey's "30 Rock" or even as tartly satisfying as her self-penned film debut Mean Girls will be disappointed. What Fey does bring to the table is her sardonic, self-deprecating performance style as a comedienne, a welcome gift, which when combined with the daffy, freak of nature antics of comic foil Amy Poehler makes this hit or miss comedy something awfully close to special.Fey stars as Kate Holbrook, a professionally fulfilled business woman, craving a way to satisfy her personal needs. She is stricken with a case of baby fever (creepily indicated by a partly hallucinatory montage of adorable infants) and sets about trying to spawn a tiny tot of her own. After discovering the painful truth that she is infertile, she settles on the idea of a surrogate. Enter Poehler as the laid back, rough around the edges Angie who agrees to carry the baby despite her obvious personality differences with the finicky and uppity Kate. The situation turns sour when Angie makes an ill-advised choice to mislead Kate. The odd couple duo threatens to split at the seams as Kate pursues a charming juice maker (Greg Kinnear) and Angie tries to fend off her ex-boyfriend Carl (Dax Shepherd) who is threatening to expose her secrets.
The attempt to create an engaging dramatic thread of suspense and discovery is admirable but ultimately false and distracting. The film rings truest during its most outrageous moments of offbeat camaraderie between Fey and Poehler's unlikely pair of misfits. Each instills simple life lessons in the other, sometimes done with skilled subtlety and elsewhere with the force of a jackhammer. Either way, there is a joy in this goofy moments. The tear in their friendship is a quick and worthy shock to the system but labored subplots involving paternity tests and courtroom drama threaten to compromise the film's human charms and almost do at times. There's also something ugly to be said about the blunt coincidences and predictable turns of events here, particularly a major letdown of an ending that stinks of commercial complacency. The result is essentially a half-baked female response to the Judd Apatow that will likely be best remembered for convincing everyone Tina Fey has the luster to be a bona fide film star.
Grade: B-
