Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

A friend of mine sent me an invite to this test screening earlier in the week. I was sort of amazed when I saw the cast. I hadn’t heard anything about this film that I can remember, so I’m curious to read this reader’s reaction to the screening that just happened:

Hey Harry! I’m a long time reader of AICN but never had the chance to contribute anything until I moved to LA recently. Well, I was just part of the “first-ever so-important” screening for a new flick called “Baby Mama” at the AMC 16 in Burbank. I figured I’d get the word out on how it went!

I went in without knowing anything about the film aside from the cast, which is pretty impressive, to say the least. It includes Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Greg Kinnear, Amy Poehler, and even a spot for Sigourney Weaver! The pass flyer had a pretty decent synopsis of what happens in the film, but I was a little put off by the name. Basically, an aging and high-class business woman named Kate (Fey) is desperate for a child. However, due to a problem with her ovaries and age, she only has a million-in-one chance of actually having one. After having issues with adoption, she decides to try a surrogate mother company owned by Chaffee Bicknell (Weaver). Through this program, she meets the future mother of her child, Angie (Poehler). It turns out, though, that Angie isn’t exactly what Kate had in mind for the mother of her baby and wacky hijinks ensue. Along the way, we meet several characters that affect Kate’s life, including juice-shop owner Rob (Kinnear) and Kate’s boss, Barry (Martin). Obviously, I can’t go into too many details about the film specifics, but that’s pretty much the summary.

With a synopsis like that, combined with a title like “Baby Mama,” I was worried that this would be another wacky and zany comedy filled with slapstick and cheap laughs. However, I was pleasantly surprised, in large part due to the wonderful casting and slick writing. The film as a whole was a wonderful mix of sight gags and just generally out-there characters along with more subtle, high-brow jokes. Myself and the rest of the audience was laughing throughout most of the film with only a few sections of downtime dispersed throughout. Every actor was at the top of their game, and I really think fans of Tina Fey/30 Rock will enjoy how she handled her role. I should also note that Steve Martin was not in an incredibly large role but absolutely stole the screen whenever he appeared as Kate’s New Age boss and corporation owner. I heard several of those around me marking him down on the “Favorite Characters” section during the review afterwards, as I also did.

The film is not perfect, however, and it does suffer from the same pacing problems that similar comedies have. The beginning is wonderful and funny, but the middle section saw a downturn of laughs as conflict and such start to enter the picture a little more. The overall outcome is predictable once the twists were thrown out, and a few of the characters, while funny, didn’t really seem completely necessary to the whole of the film. They could easily cut out around 15-20 minutes of the film without trouble. The version we saw without credits and the like was roughly 2 hours, which was bearable for sure, but could be a bit shorter.

In the end, I was really glad I went. Having just watched Knocked Up, I got much of the same vibe as far as the style of comedy, though this film had a slightly more “zany” vibe to it. The “lessons learned” and such may not be as profound, but I think fans of the former would enjoy this one quite a bit, large because of Tina Fey’s attachment to it. The writing’s slick, funny, and smart, especially considering how easily it would have been to turn the premise into just another generic “pregnancy is funny” comedy. I’ll definitely call up the parents and take them to see it whenever it’s released.

If you use this, call me Serphius.