Film: Birth Dearth

CAN infertility be funny? This is the first and most pressing question raised by Baby Mama, a cheerful little film premised on the theory that the “inhospitable” uterus of a late-30s professional woman can be mined for the same sort of laughs (and box-office dollars) delivered by last year’s spate of unplannedpregnancy comedies. Fifteen minutes into the film, I was ready to answer in the negative. However terrifying an unintended pregnancy may be, it’s still a pregnancy, with a fundamentally happy outcome waiting at the end. Whereas the moments that can inspire laughs, however uncomfortable, when they’re experienced by an unwed mother-to-be-going on bad dates, getting examined by inept doctors, visiting your judgmental mother and married-with-children sister-feel more like the stuff of tragedy when it’s the absence of a child that’s creating all the awkwardness.

The woman Baby Mama subjects to these indignities is Kate Holbrook, played by Tina Fey as a variation on the role she inhabits weekly on NBC’s sitcom 30 Rock-a quick-witted Girl Friday who keeps a male-dominated institution from running itself into the ground. Here, she’s the indispensable vice president at One Earth, a Whole Foods-style conglomerate run by a ponytailed, faux-hippie tycoon (Steve Martin, having a ball) who likes to sit Buddha-style on conference tables and begin his sentences: “This morning, while I was swimming with the dolphins . . .” And Kate’s star is on the rise, since One Earth is about to open a flagship store in her home city of Philadelphia; the project, her boss promises, will be her “baby.”

About the Author

Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat is a former National Review contributing editor.

Featured Tags

CAN infertility be funny? This is the first and most pressing question raised by Baby Mama, a cheerful little film premised on the theory that the “inhospitable” uterus of a late-30s professional woman can be mined for the same sort of laughs (and box-office dollars) delivered by last year’s spate of unplannedpregnancy comedies. Fifteen minutes into the film, I was ready to answer in the negative. However terrifying an unintended pregnancy may be, it’s still a pregnancy, with a fundamentally happy outcome waiting at the end. Whereas the moments that can inspire laughs, however uncomfortable, when they’re experienced by an unwed mother-to-be-going on bad dates, getting examined by inept doctors, visiting your judgmental mother and married-with-children sister-feel more like the stuff of tragedy when it’s the absence of a child that’s creating all the awkwardness.

The woman Baby Mama subjects to these indignities is Kate Holbrook, played by Tina Fey as a variation on the role she inhabits weekly on NBC’s sitcom 30 Rock-a quick-witted Girl Friday who keeps a male-dominated institution from running itself into the ground. Here, she’s the indispensable vice president at One Earth, a Whole Foods-style conglomerate run by a ponytailed, faux-hippie tycoon (Steve Martin, having a ball) who likes to sit Buddha-style on conference tables and begin his sentences: “This morning, while I was swimming with the dolphins . . .” And Kate’s star is on the rise, since One Earth is about to open a flagship store in her home city of Philadelphia; the project, her boss promises, will be her “baby.”