Welcome to Rearview Mirror, a monthly column in which I re-view and then re-review a movie I have already seen under the new (and improved?) critical lens of 2023. I’m so happy you’re here.
A smart-but-sort-of-unexciting woman who’s poured her energy into her impressive career finds herself in her mid-30s longing for a child despite not being married. She’s played by Tina Fey. Can she have it all? This is an ongoing plot line in 30 Rock and also the premise of 2008’s Baby Mama. 30 Rock does it better and funnier, as both a recurring story and a singular episode (“Goodbye, My Friend”). But Baby Mama has more Amy Poehler. Does that justify its existence? Hear me out: yes.
Tina and Amy, real life best friends, have been an on-screen pair since the SNL days when they became the first all-female team behind the Weekend Update desk. They did Hillary and Sarah Palin, supporting characters in Mean Girls, and a hat trick hosting the Golden Globes (“And now, like a supermodel’s vagina, let’s all give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio” is still an all-timer, in my opinion), and now they’re about to go on tour together. In addition to Baby Mama, they also co-starred in Sisters as the titular sisters. Both movies are like…fun. But that’s really not the point.
Did Hepburn and Tracy bat a thousand? Laurel and Hardy? Abbott and Costello? Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland? Don’t tell me you’ve never been tempted to rent Joe Versus the Volcano because after Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail you just wanted to see more Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Only Murders in the Building happens to be a really good show, but even if it weren’t, I would watch it for Steve Martin and Martin Short. Sometimes it’s enough for two people to just be really charming and fun together. If Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly can do it, why not Poehler and Fey? Sure, Baby Mama isn’t as funny as Step Brothers, but it’s better than Holmes & Watson.
Sometimes it’s enough for two people to just be really charming and fun together. If Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly can do it, why not Poehler and Fey?
The story itself is pretty straightforward, and could have benefitted from a little more zaniness in its execution. Kate (Fey) wants to have a baby but has a bum uterus, so she hires Angie (Poehler) as a surrogate. Irresponsible and uneducated Angie ends up moving in with Kate, and the two women develop a friendship that temporarily falls apart when Angie reveals that she isn’t actually pregnant with Kate’s baby but with her own, which she plans to keep. Don’t worry, everyone gets a happy ending.
Even just 15 years on, it’s incredible how dated this feels now that surrogacy is so normalized. It’s not that an Angie type wouldn’t end up wreaking havoc on the life of a Kate type, but I doubt her family would be confused by the process. But while this is the very premise of the movie, it’s also the only part that shows its age, because baby-making isn’t really the heart of the story here. It’s the Odd Couple, plus a Lamaze class. The whole thing hinges on the likability of Kate and Angie as a bickering pair. And they’re likable as hell.
I remember going to see this movie with a friend when it was in theaters, but the screening we wanted was sold out. Sold out! A mid-budget comedy starring two chicks! Sold out! We bought tickets to Prom Night instead and snuck into Baby Mama, but we couldn’t find seats and ended up actually seeing Prom Night, which happened to be my first time seeing a horror movie ever. Should I have been writing about Prom Night this month instead? Go watch it and get back to me.
Anyway, I finally saw Baby Mama some months later when we rented it at my friend Lucy’s house. Lucy’s mom, a kind women and an ER doctor—so, like, smart and stuff—watched with us, and as Fey and love interest Greg Kinnear ended their first date with a romantic stroll down an alley and leaned in for a kiss, she said, “Ooh…they’re falling in love.” Again, this movie is super straightforward. But she continued: “It can happen any time.” Then, I think, she told us some story about the early days with Lucy’s father.
The whole thing hinges on the likability of Kate and Angie as a bickering pair. And they’re likable as hell.
Ultimately, this moment, which makes me smile whenever I think about it—which is a lot, and I like to tell this anecdote when people talk about talking during movies or parents asking questions during movies—is what I remember most about Baby Mama. Not anything to do with Fey or Poehler, fun as they are, but my friend Lucy’s mom making sincere and obvious observations. And you know what? It can happen any time.
By the end of the movie, Angie and her boyfriend are broken up but co-parenting their daughter. Fey and Kinnear are together and raising their daughter. Not to read too much into it, but Lucy and I are both only children, and her parents are together, and mine aren’t, but both raised me.
I say that’s enough. Tina and Amy. Lucy and me. Good vibes, great chemistry, a perfectly serviceable script and a couple genuinely funny moments. And honestly, isn’t it always fun when Maura Tierney pops up? FL
