Baby Mama review: why poorly written female characters ruined this movie

When I first saw the trailer for Baby Mama, I was excited. When I found out that it beat out Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay for the number one spot at the US box office in April, I was even more excited. However, the actual movie itself left me rather, erm...underwhelmed. I'm a huge Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fan, and am a big supporter of female driven movies. I wanted to love this movie, and I was hoping it would be indicative of how women are starting to shift the world of film.

Walking through the Tube station at Oxford Circus on my way to the screening I, at one point, was surrounded by movie posters for female driven films: The Edge of Love starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller; the WWII film Female Agents. It was a fantastic feeling. I thought Baby Mama would make me proud and make me feel like we had finally kicked the "Women Aren't Funny" stereotype in the ass. Baby Mama just seemed to softly step on it's big toe.

I was under the impression that comedy-writing genius Tina Fey wrote the screenplay for this film, and clearly, it was not. Michael McCullers did a fair job of giving the over all story a twist that most of the audience didn't see coming - but as far as writing hilarious, new, fresh characters for Amy and Tina to play was concerned: he failed. Horribly.

How many times do we have to see a spec-sporting brunette actress play a workaholic control freak who never leaves their top button undone, and obsesses over their house guests using coasters? And how many times do we need to say said Brunette accidentally get drunk and finally let their hair loose and dance?

Tina Fey's character drove me nuts. However, it appeared that what was wrong with her character, Kate, wasn't her fault. She's a great actress and there were moments of genius where you could see Tina's comedic essence shine through. (For example saying that her "avatar is dressed like a whore" when playing a video game with Amy Poehler's character.)

The same can be said for Amy. Amy's character Angie seemed to ripped from the pages of a typical Saturday Night Live sketch. Angie was unoriginal and over-cooked, but Poehler did the best she could with it. There were moments, like with Tina, that you could really see Poehler's hilarity and she made me laugh so hard my sides hurt when her character was in labor. (Best line: "IT FEELS LIKE I'M SHITTING A KNIFE!!!!")

The film generally felt that as if if Poehler and Fey were left to their own devices and their own ideas that it could have been truly funny. But it felt like there were too many outside influences (such as a poor script) to allow them to really blossom. I just felt as though the film didn't let the two comedians do what they do best. It's as though their talents were harnessed and they were only unleashed for about 30 hilarious seconds at a time, here and there throughout the film.

Aside from Fey and Poehler's character letting me down, there was another character that really bothered me: Romany Malco's character Oscar. For those of you who watch Weeds, you know Malco as Conrad, and you've seen what an amazing actor he is. But watching Malco being reduced to playing the jive talking, hip-hop loving door man was painful. He played the part well, but there was something so stereotypical about it that made me really uncomfortable. Why was Malco the token black guy in the film?? Aren't we beyond that??

The one character that really stood out as being consistently funny was Steve Martin's character, the organic, hippy-freak who thought giving five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact was some kind of reward. Sigourney Weaver is also in the film, but seemed to overact her part as comedy didn't appear to come natural to her. Tina Fey's love interest in the film is played by Greg Kinnear, yet seems to be playing the same boring nice guy that he always gets stuck playing in Romantic Comedies. Are you seeing a theme here? Bad character after bad character after bad character.

Overall, this movie will make you laugh. There are enough funny moments towards the end of the movie that it will make you glad that you laid down the £10 for a movie ticket. But when it comes to buying this movie on DVD, save your sterling. It's not worth it. Plus, if you're looking at Baby Mama to get a fantastic dose of classic Tina Fey and Amy Poehler humour, I'd go watch Mean Girls instead.

Cate Sevilla is a freelance writer in London and regular contributor to Dollymix.

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