by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
C+ PG-13 96 min
Tina Fey’s talent at delivering her style of droll comedy saves this mediocre film from complete ruin. Amy Poehler also contributes her brand of off-kilter humor to the mix. Otherwise, writer/director Michael McCullers dropped the ball with his uneven pacing that resulted in dead zones in the middle of the story. However, Fey and Poehler work so well together that viewers can almost forgive McCullers’ flaws in making the film.
Fey plays Kate as a highly driven woman executive of an organic food market chain, who, at 37, heard the alarm of her biological clock going off like a nuclear blast. She see babies everywhere but when she goes to a doctor, he tells her that her chances of conceiving a child are a million to one. This sets-up the premise for the story. Kate investigates having a baby by a surrogate mother.
Sigourney Weaver portrays the prissy president of a baby surrogate company that screens the applicants and charges big bucks for the service. Amy Poehler plays the woman Kate chooses to have her baby, Angie–a free spirit who has a jerky boyfriend. Essentially, Fey, as Kate, is playing a modified version of her character in 30 Rock, Liz Lemon. But, she is so appealing and funny, viewers completely accept Fey as Kate.
When Amy breaks-up with her boyfriend, Kate allows Amy to stay with her. It’s a marriage made in surrogate mama hell as Amy’s sloppy ways and terrible diet of junk food clashes with Kate’s anal retentive personality and health food regimen.
Steve Martin manages to glean some laughs as Kate’s boss, the owner of the health food market chain, Barry– a New Age geek with a ponytail who never got over the 60s. Kate is tasked with finding a new location in NYC for another organic food market. Her madcap life with Amy is distracting, but she doesn’t let it interfere with her job. One wonders if a baby will interfere with her professional life?
McCullers plays heavily on the “Odd Couple” pairing of Kate and Amy, but this is only a superficial part of the story which is meant to have a sentimental hook. Yeah, but McCullers script goes too far by suddenly getting serious as Kate finds out faker Amy has illicit intentions. By then, Kate has established a twin sister like relationship with Amy, and is devastated by finding out Amy was a fraud. This device is nullified by Amy actually being pregnant by her loser boyfriend.
If course, the predicable path of this formulaic script has Kate meeting a romantic interest, Rob, played by Greg Kinnear. Savvy viewers will figure out where this is going as her romance with Rob blossoms. Still, when Kate and Amy are together, the chemistry between Fey and Poehler shines brightly. Although Poehler’s character Amy is a trailer trash, she has a heart which Poehler plays with skillful finesse.
The way McCullers forged his script smacks of commercial priorities. In other words, he was going for the audience acceptance jugular. It’s all too pat and wrapped up in a nice gold ribbon –a paint-by-numbers MacMovie. Still, Fey and Poehler make this fluff palatable and enjoyable. Fans of Fey’s 30 Rock will have fun watching Poehler as Amy completely mess up Kate’s ordered but boring life, and eventually, give her some soul in the bargain.
Article Published in the April 2008 Issue of EU Jacksonville
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