That comedy stars Fey as Kate Holbrook, a career-driven and uptight executive of a health-food supermarket chain in Philadelphia. She loves her job, but at 37 she feels she's missing out on one part of life: being a mother. Unable to conceive and impatient for the adoption process, Kate finds Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver), a broker of surrogate mothers. Chaffee matches Kate up with Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), who would be described kindly as "uninhibited" and unkindly as "trailer trash."
Soon after Kate's eggs are planted in Angie's womb, Angie dumps her jerk husband (Dax Shepard) and moves in with Kate. Predictably, Kate's fastidious ways grate on Angie, while Angie gets Kate to loosen up a bit and even try a date with the nice guy (Greg Kinnear) who runs the juice bar in the neighborhood where Kate is building the grocery chain's new flagship store.
The movie marks the directing debut of Michael McCullers, who was Fey's "SNL" officemate before going on to work on the last two "Austin Powers" movies. McCullers' screenplay runs the characters through a bunch of scenario cliches - the drunken-bonding moment, the courtroom climax, the delivery-room mega-climax, and so on to the happily-ever-after epilogue - with thudding predictability.
But what makes "Baby Mama" worth the ride is watching the performers when they untether from the plot. McCullers calls in some funny supporting players: Romany Malco ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin") as Kate's doorman, Maura Tierney as her sister, and especially Steve Martin as Kate's ponytailed hipster boss. But the best moments come when Fey and Poehler just cut loose and riff hilariously on everything from birthing classes to karaoke video games.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Baby Mama
* WHERE: Theaters everywhere.
* WHEN: Opens today.
* RATING: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference.
* RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes.
* BOTTOM LINE: Forget the formulaic plot - just enjoy a couple of funny women playing off each other.
