Reznet

'Baby Mama' Drama

By Nancy Kelsey

As a big fan of Tina Fey I had high hopes for big laughs in her newest movie, "Baby Mama."

No. Such. Luck.

In her "Saturday Night Live" skits, Fey marries her sarcastic wit to intelligent humor. The SNL offspring is often gut-busting hilarity reminiscent of a female Stephen Colbert.

This movie, though somewhat entertaining, does not reach the standard she set in her screenplay for "Mean Girls." That movie's plot was refreshing, interesting and full of the one-liners that can make a person peel over with loud bursts of laughter. That kind of memorable comedy is absent here.

In "Baby Mama" Fey stars with fellow SNL alum Amy Poehler in a story about a 40-something single professional who decides to use a surrogate to have the baby she has always wanted.

Fey's character, a successful career-oriented business executive still climbing her company's heirarchy, seeks the pricey guidance of a surrogacy company that sets her up with Poehler's character. Poehler plays well the out-of-control party girl with no concept of personal boundaries.

As personalities soon collide, with Poehler moving into Fey's apartment because of a break-up with Poehler's boyfriend, Fey's character begins mothering her baby prematurely by mothering Poehler. It is the classic duel of personalities we see often on-screen between the control freak and the free spirit.

Later, we learn the truth about Poehler's pregnancy that sets into motion some intense baby mama drama.

The dialogue and plot in this movie are only OK, not of the caliber we would expect from a Fey/Poehler duo. The performances, however, were fairly well-executed. The minor parts of Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver and Greg Kinnear could have been expanded to add shine to the movie's overall lackluster humor.

Maybe my expectations were just too high, but I award this movie only two frybreads.

Nancy Kelsey, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, is studying journalism at the University of Nebraska graduate school in Lincoln. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. She interned as a reporter for The Associated Press in Boston last summer and, in 2007, at The Seattle Times.