The so-so comedy “Baby Mama” is essentially notable for being the 8th movie in less than a year in which pregnancy (or abortion) is central to the plot. Think “Juno,” “Knocked Up,” Waitress,” “Smart People,” “Then She Found Me,” “Bella,” etc.
Tina Fey plays an uber-disciplined exec who has it all…except a baby. And at 37, her biological clock is setting off alarms. After discovering her uterus is all but usless in the birthing area and adoption could take so long she’ll be retired before a bouncing baby anything will be available, she does what any savvy exec would do: she out-sources.
Through an exclusive surrogate broker, played with sly wit by Sigourney Weaver, Fey makes an arrangement with blue-collar girl, Amy Poehler (Fey’s former tag-team co-anchor on “Saturday Night Live.”)
Unfortunately, “Baby Mama” wasn’t written or directed by either of these smart gals. Rather, that job has gone to first-time director Michael McCullers whose previous writing credits include a season at “SNL” and the “Austen Powers” movies in which he created such witty and memorable female characters as…well, put it this way, Mike Meyers’ privates had a better showcase.
So “Baby Mama,” which could have been a clever look at a situation faced by all too many woman, turns instead to class warfare in which the uptight Fey worries about the effect Poehler’s junk-food diet and affinity for “American Idol” karaoke will have on her unborn child. The jokes are generally dull, the material superficial and an obnoxious side-gag in which everyone is horrified that the 60-ish Weaver still effortlessly drops babies like a bunny rabbit, is frankly ugly.
STILL….and this is my premiere point (pregnancy as a plot device will have to hold for a subsequent post): the film is held together, even amusing at times, thanks to the expert chemistry between Fey and Poehler.
Female comedy teams are exceedingly rare in movies. Thelma and Louis could be funny, but then they drove over that cliff. Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler were a great match in “Big Business;” they even had that fat/thin visual thing favored by endless male comic teams. But they have yet to do another movie together.
Oddly enough, women tend to come in threes on the big screen: Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Witches of Eastwick;” Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in “The First Wives Club;” Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow in “Hanging Up.” And the threesomes are always one-shot deals.
Yet male comedy teams have a tradition stretching back, at least, to Laurel and Hardy. In their wake, we’ve laughed at Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Bob ‘n’ Bing, Belushi and Aykroyd, Farley and Spade, Pryor and Wilder, Matthau and Lemmon, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, etc., etc., etc.
Ah, but remember: a woman’s place is in the house. Television has been home to a handful of classic funny-girl teams, beginning with Lucille Ball and Vivien Vance as the indomitable Lucy and Ethel. These women could hold their own with any of the aforementioned men.They even had a slight thin/fat thing going on; Lucy inisisted her co-star keep on an extra ten pounds so she’d look…well, put it this way, dumpier.
Almost in the same league are Mary and Rhoda, i.e., Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper, who could just sit around and talk without guys present. And sometimes they talked about their jobs and their apartments insead of their dating life. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams got in their licks as “Laverne and Shirley,” and there was chemistry — even if it was acidic — between “Cybill’s’” Cybill Shepherd and Christine Baranski.
But maybe Fey and Poehler will break the curse. I could see a Midler/Tomlin reunion. I’d like a Goldie Hawn/Susan Sarandon repeat, but NOT as ”The Banger Sisters.” Maybe an unexpected pairing, like Zooey Deschanel and Ellen Page. Or controversial, like nice-girl Katherine Heigl and bad-girl Lindsey Lohan. I’d love to see what Maggie Gyllenhaal and Diane Lane could do together (though I’m not sure about their age range). Maybe Lane and Sarah Jessica Parker?
Speaking of whom, “Sex and the City” hits theaters on May 30.That’s not exactly a team…more like a horde…but it could be a start.
What’s your opinion? Which actresses do you think would make a sunny, funny, stunning comedy team. Please let us know by posting your comments.