Oh, Mama
The problem with Baby Mama is that Tina Fey should have written it instead of director Michael McCullers. I say this presuming that Fey wrote some of her own dialogue (just as I know she wrote "bitch is the new black" for that SNL Hillary skit), but the film, I suspect, would have been at least 50% better if McCullers, who directs Baby Mama with the steady but cautious approach of a 68 year-old chess player, had just removed himself period. The writing feels reined in, conservative, middling.
I'm not going to pass along the plot particulars. Everyone knows them from the trailer, or you can always read the Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern or..well, anyone.
I seriously hate the careful, tidy, corporatized vibe of big-studio comedies that have been directed by veteran hacks in their getting-on years. You know...guys from the Adam Sandler, Austin Powers or SNL talent families looking to please their clueless corporate employers so they can cover their various loans. The result are always films that seem utterly alike. Smart but never clever, well acted but lacking that lift-off feeling, pleasantly shot, predictably plotted. Smooth, professional-level swill.
Except for two or three mild titters (which are less than chuckles and nowhere close to guffaws), I watched Baby Mama with the face of Ramses as he looked upon Moses. Maybe Fey should have directed as well. She's a real-life superwoman -- why not?
The irony is that I didn't hate Baby Mama despite all this. I stayed with it (i.e., I didn't walk out, which is a signficant thing in my book) because of Fey. I've had this...you know, mild thing for her since her SNL days. It has something to do with the glasses and the semi-conservative dark haircut and...I don't know. Smart women turn me on, and on top of this Fey reminds me of my girlfriend. The difference is, my girlfriend loves Obama.
I didn't think Amy Poehler was all that believable as a commoner. She seemed to be "playing" the part every step of the way, which is not an impression most actors want to convey. Dependable Gregg Kinnear is fine as the predictably nice boyfriend who owns a struggling independent Jamba Juice-type store.
Tom McCarthy, the director of The Visitor and The Station Agent, has a short bit as a guy out on a dinner date with Fey. His character is quickly overwhelmed by Fey's frank talk about wanting a baby before she gets too much older., etc. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom but is seen jumping into a cab 10 seconds later. The scene isn't funny because McCullers, shmuck that he is, has directed McCarthy poorly. Any guy looking to run away from a dinner date would be hugely ashamed of himself, and would therefore do his level best to convince the woman in question that he really does need to take a leak, so he can get away clean. McCarthy doesn't do that -- he's lying with pathetic obviousness. And the escaping man would certainly never look at the his abandoned date through the restaurant window as he jumps into the cab. If anything, he would pointedly look away so as not to confront his own cowardliness.
Baby Mama is tepid and lame. It's not even a DVD rental. It's a 35,000 foot altitude plane-watch thing.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 25, 2008 at 8:10 AM
comment #1
lazespud
says ...
Damn. I had high hopes for this thing. The trailer is legitimately funny and seemed to indicate that the movie would be a consistent winner like 30 rock and Mean Girls. Ugg.
Posted by lazespud
at April 25, 2008 9:30 AM
comment #2
Rothchild
says ...
There's no way your girl looks like Tina Fey. Attractive women only date sexy men or men with power.
Posted by Rothchild
at April 25, 2008 9:46 AM
comment #3
Jay T.
says ...
And Rothchild opens the can of worms... I was waiting for it to happen.
Posted by Jay T.
at April 25, 2008 10:31 AM
comment #4
Fred Mounts
says ...
Shouldn't crack on the director...he may have some spare pictures of Fey laying around.
I kid!
Posted by Fred Mounts
at April 25, 2008 10:39 AM
comment #5
gruver1
says ...
Wells to Rothchild: Gee, sorry, but my girlfriend does kinda look like a curvier, boobier Fey. Really. You know that personal spears thrown in my direction will get you bounced from these parts, right? So you wanna get bounced...is that it? You want me to step in and give you the boot...some kind of self-destructive thing on your part? Keep it up and I will.
Posted by gruver1
at April 25, 2008 10:39 AM
comment #6
Monument
says ...
I like Tina Fey, I really do, 30 Rock is a great show but there is something vaguely irritating about watching her perform. She does this "Hey look, I'm about to say something funny" face that always takes me out of the joke a little.
I know it's a stupid trifling thing, but it still bugs me. Anybody else know what I'm talking about?
Posted by Monument
at April 25, 2008 10:41 AM
comment #7
Mr. Muckle
says ...
Jeff, you should know that the slogan in Fey's skit was "bitch is the new black," not the reverse. To say "black is the new bitch" in the context of this primary race would be mighty provocative and offensive. What are ya thinkin?
Posted by Mr. Muckle
at April 25, 2008 10:57 AM
comment #8
nemo
says ...
"I didn't think Amy Poehler was all that believable as a commoner. She seemed to be "playing" the part every step of the way, which is not an impression most actors want to convey."
She mostly seems to be playing my 8-year-old niece when she's regressing to 4-year-old behavior.
Posted by nemo
at April 25, 2008 11:01 AM
comment #9
gruver1
says ...
Wells to Muckle: It came out that way, I suppose, because I was thinking about Obama getting beat up so badly in recent days.
Posted by gruver1
at April 25, 2008 11:06 AM
comment #10
mjn
says ...
Anyone hear anything about WB's Spring Breakdown starring Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Parker Posey. I believe it was completed a long time ago and has shifted all around the schedule. It currently sits in TBA 2008 limbo.
Posted by mjn
at April 25, 2008 12:10 PM
comment #11
christian
says ...
Jeff, why do you think that when you critique the world's physical attributes and what really attracts women that you don't have to include yourself in your own observations? Seriously.
Posted by christian
at April 25, 2008 12:15 PM
comment #12
Movie Watcher
says ...
Monument, you are right. I can't stand that shittly grin she has. Who is going to see this thing?
Posted by Movie Watcher
at April 25, 2008 12:55 PM
comment #13
nemo
says ...
My favorite line from Morgenstern's review:
"The camera work is aggressively ugly, as overlit as an interrogation room."
A complaint I've had against bad comedies going back at least 30 years.
Posted by nemo
at April 25, 2008 1:32 PM
comment #14
D.Z.
says ...
I hope this doesn't end up being poison to Fey the way Superstar was to Molly Shannon's career.
Posted by D.Z.
at April 25, 2008 6:24 PM
comment #15
Mgmax, le Corbeau
says ...
I have trouble remembering what Fey looks like. I could spot Poehler in the Macy's parade, but Fey, as soon as I look away, I can't think what she looks like and if I try, I get Helen Hunt or something. Is she really that non-descript-- there are people like that-- or is it just me?
Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau
at April 25, 2008 6:40 PM
comment #16
Movie fan09
says ...
Gruver1 says...
It has something to do with the glasses and the semi-conservative dark haircut and...I don't know. Smart women turn me on, and on top of this Fey reminds me of my girlfriend. The difference is, my girlfriend loves Obama.
great minds think alike Jeff.
I ADORE those kind of girls.
they're just so much more fun.
Posted by Movie fan09
at April 25, 2008 7:20 PM
comment #17
Arizona Joe
says ...
M. Dargis, NY Times, says..........
.......given that Ms. Fey, who doesn’t have the acting chops that might invest her character with some personality, has been forced to play it straight and narrow. The close-up medium of television is more forgiving of those comics who tend to stand in the middle of the frame as if they had just been planted. But unlike Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, Ms. Fey doesn’t even have a funny voice.
That’s too bad, because she is genuinely funny. And if there’s anything the movies could use it is funny women, especially those who earn laughs by keeping their clothes on and their dignity (more or less) intact. Under the old Hollywood system, the studio boss might have ordered up a dance coach for Ms. Fey, maybe a few lessons on how to walk across a set or move her upper body once in a while.
Posted by Arizona Joe
at April 25, 2008 11:14 PM
comment #18
Spicer
says ...
30 Rock sets the comedy bar pretty high. I think it's a good acting gig for Fey, playing Mary Richards to Alec Baldwin's Lou Grant.
Posted by Spicer
at April 26, 2008 2:54 AM
comment #19
Rich S.
says ...
Jeffrey, you didn't read Fey's interview in EW, did you? If you did you would know that Tracy Morgan's "black is the new president, bitch," was the original ending of FEY's rant. The point of the rant was that, "yeah, Hill, you're getting a raw deal, but you're still toast."
The piece was changed between dress rehearsals and air and the final line was dropped because, in Fey's words, "it felt like a negative way to go out." It was supposed to be a rant about gender politics, but was misconstrued.
The reaction took Fey by surprise, so now she refuses to say who she supports. It's a wise move, because 30 Rock is at its funniest when it's poking fun at all sides.
So it might be okay for you to have the hots for Tina Fey. She's not an Obama hater. Of course, she's also a Star Wars geek, and I know that's also a deal-breaker.
Posted by Rich S.
at April 26, 2008 4:57 AM
comment #20
luolujo
says ...
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Posted by luolujo
at April 4, 2011 10:42 AM
comment #21
jany
says ...
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at April 22, 2011 1:26 AM