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So Baby Mama is a mixed (diaper) bag. On the plus side, there are a couple of plot twists that I didn't expect; I hardly expected there to be a plot at all. On the negative, there are too many moments of unearned sentimentality, too many montages, too much tinkly music shoving our emotions around. In a late scene, the music swells and the camera dollies in as Angie apologizes for complicating Kate's life so much, and says, "Thank you, you made me grow up." That lurch in the audience's stomach is not morning sickness.

Talk About It

1. Surrogacy is one of those new medical possibilities that raises moral questions previous generations never considered. What do you think? Is it right for a woman to have her fertilized egg implanted in another woman's womb, and pay her to go through the pregnancy?
2. Throughout the movie there are situations where it's accepted that women needn't be married to raise a child. Is there a moral dimension to the decision to become a single mom, or is it just a matter of choice?
3. What do you think of Angie's prospects at the end of the movie? Is it a happy ending for her? What do you think Angie's and Kate's lives would look like if you came back ten years later?

The Family Corner

Baby Mama is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference. The storyline assumes that unmarried people will have sex, that they can have babies with or without sex, and that they can get pregnant without having babies (in an early line, Angie exclaims that she is "real good at getting pregnant," though she has no children). There are crude situations, for example, when Angie can't get the child-lock off the toilet and climbs onto the sink to relieve herself. A raft of obscenities completes the movie's range.

Photos © Copyright Universal Pictures

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