This is about a surrogate mother, and in a sense star Tina Fey is being asked to be the movie’s surrogate. Michael McCullers, who wrote alongside Fey for a few years at “Saturday Night Live,” is the writer and director here. And while there is no telling exactly how the creative process went – how much input Fey had, for example – there is no denying that Baby Mama isn’t nearly as funny as it should have been. Thankfully, it has enough fizzy moments. As Kate Holbrook, Fey offers an extension of her “30 Rock” persona – the successful career woman who is nonetheless tempted by “traditional” womanhood – and she shows real, big-screen charisma. Also ably handling the largest part of her career is “Saturday Night Live” player Amy Poehler, who actually underplays the crass, cash-strapped woman who agrees to be the surrogate for Kate’s baby. Poehler and Fey play off of each other hilariously – what a relief to see two women allowed to riff with the same screen time usually given to the Superbad boys. Yet the movie’s structure does them no favors. First there is no plot, then there is far too much all at once – a hint that if anything, Baby Mama may have suffered from excessive story meetings. Forget cooks in the kitchen; there may have been too many writers stirring this pot.
