All Movie Guide:
Plot Synopsis by Jason Buchanan
Former Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" co-anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-star in this baby-fever comedy about a single, career-oriented woman who previously put parenthood on hold, and is forced to hire a surrogate mother when she discovers there is only a one-in-a-million chance that she will be able to get pregnant. Kate Holbrook (Fey) is a 37-year-old business executive who has always put her professional life before her personal life, but these days her biological clock is ticking louder than ever before. As with everything else she has accomplished in life, Kate is determined to have a child on her own terms. Unfortunately for Kate, the chance of her ever becoming pregnant is slim to none. Undaunted, a willful Kate drafts South Philly working-class girl Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler) -- a woman who may just be her polar opposite -- to be a surrogate mother. Subsequently informed by the head of the surrogacy center (Sigourney Weaver) that her surrogate is indeed pregnant, the excited mother-to-be soon purchases every child-rearing book she can find and excitedly begins the nesting process. But life hasn't quit throwing Kate curveballs just yet, because when a pregnant Angie shows up on her doorstep with no place to live, the woman who once thrived on order finds her life descending into chaos. Now, as Kate attempts to transform Angie into the ideal expectant mother, this odd couple will discover that families aren't always biological, but occasionally formed through friendship as well. Writer Michael McCullers, who authored the screenplays for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Undercover Brother in addition to working on Saturday Night Live, makes his feature directorial debut with a self-penned screenplay.
While the above indicates a three-star premise (and the film boasts three-star direction), there is four-star talent involved that makes the film watchable with chuckles. Those awaiting the motion picture followup to Fey's "Mean Girls" will be somewhat disappointed as she didn't write this script, but there are inspired lines and pieces of humor that must've come from improv sessions with the cast. It is this group of comedians and these bits and characterizations that save the movie from being just a bland, safe baby-comedy.
Fey and Poehler have great chemistry together and their give-and-take is really the heart and soul of this picture. Fey's slow-burn straight man to Poehler's off-the-wall character is the comic basis of the film and they're up to the challenge. They have many great scenes together and those scenes manage to outweigh the rest of the film comically. Whenever Fey is not around Poehler, you sometimes wish they'd be back together so the film could be unpredictably funny again.
Not that some of the rest of the cast isn't funny. Steve Martin, in a minor role, plays a very "earthy" entrepreneur and is the best film role he's had in years. The things that come out of his mouth are almost as hilarious as his ponytail. Dax Shepard is serviceable as Poehler's boyfriend/husband. Sigourney Weaver is very funny and makes the most of her few times on screen. Her work in this and in "The TV Set", have proven her obvious skills at comedy and I'd like to see her do more.
Fey's budding relationship with Greg Kinnear is the subplot of the film that doesn't work so well. It's not that the two of them don't have great chemistry; they do. And Kinnear is very likable. It's just that their story feels rather obvious, obligatory, and not very funny. It exists so that there may be a misunderstanding between them adding yet more conflict for Fey's character to resolve. It makes you long for a return to the Poehler storyline when you should be enjoying the romance story.
But the movie is fun and funny because the cast is game for the material. It's not going to change the world, but it is something to chuckle along to. Pregnant couple may find it funny. And it's not bad to turn on late on night when you should be going to sleep, but get caught up in something on cable instead.
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