Dhruv Sharma
‘Baby Mama’ is not your typical chick flick. With Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as its leads, it walks you through the ups and downs of motherhood and the hilarious antics of the sisterhood that develops between the two characters. Although a bit predictable at times, ‘Baby Mama’ is a fun movie that’ll certainly leave you with a lot more than some memorable gags. That being said, in the article below, we’ll be exploring all the themes that the movie covers in context with its characters and we’ll also be explaining its storyline.
Plot Summary
Singlehood: Kate Holbrook, the main character of ‘Baby Mama’ is a successful businesswoman, a good daughter, and most of all, happily single even in her late thirties. Her life is “almost” perfect. Even so, she craves having a child of her own, and for obvious reasons, her single status doesn’t really come in tandem with this dream. What further ruins her chances of being a mother is the fact that he uterus is T-shaped, because of which, the chances of her getting pregnant are one in a million; pretty much like the odds of winning a lottery. With no other option left, Kate rests her final specs of hope on surrogacy. And that’s how she meets Angie Ostrowski.
Sisterhood: Although Kate accepts Angie as the surrogate mother, she despises her careless lifestyle and unpleasant behavior. More so, her immature relationship with her haughty boyfriend bothers her even more. So to ensure that her baby is in a safe environment, Kate decides to give her a proper place to stay and even tries to give her the best possible medicine and food that would help her baby to grow.
At first, because of their polar opposite personalities, a hefty clash ensues between the two. But at the same time, they are both forced to keep up with each other’s snags as they heavily depend on one another. However, with time, the two women start forming an unlikely bond, and instead of criticizing one another, they actually learn to embrace how they can work as a unit. With this, Kate, who was previously too involved in her career, now begins to loosen up. In the meantime, Angie, too, starts to get a little serious about her life.
Amid all of these positive developments, Angie keeps a big secret from Kate: The in-vitro fertilization procedure she got for surrogacy was not successful and she was only faking her pregnancy all this while. And it’s this lie that later not only destroys the sisterhood between the two women, but also forces Kate to lose all hope. But that’s when a twist of fate brings new hope in the lives of both.
Why Did Angie Lie About her Pregnancy?
After the failure of her medical procedure, Angie still lies to Kate to be able to cash-in all the checks that she was providing her to give birth to her baby. Angie fears that if she tells her the truth, Kate will obviously stop supporting her and will start looking for another surrogate mother. To make sure that Kate never figures out her lie, Angie uses a prosthetic baby bump and even pretends to have morning sickness and other signs of pregnancy. But one day, when Kate takes her to the doctor for an ultrasound, Angie starts fearing that she’ll finally get to know about her lie.
However, to her surprise, the ultrasound reveals that she’s actually pregnant. With this, Angie is able to deduce that she’s not pregnant because of the medical procedure but is pregnant because she had sex with her boyfriend later. She now keeps this a secret from Kate because Kate just seems to be too excited about becoming a mother. Moreover, she also fears that she’ll lose Kate if she tells her the truth.
Why Did Angie Keep the Baby?
Initially in the movie, it seems like Angie and her boyfriend are just driven by their desire to earn more money and care little about starting a family of their own. However, when Angie later discovers that she’s pregnant, she chooses to keep the baby instead of letting Kate have it. The main reason why she does this is that, along the way, while she learns all about raising a child, she, too, starts to understand the value of being a mother. When she actually gets pregnant, she realizes that she would never want to give her baby to someone else. So, in the end, after a court hearing, Angie is able to keep her baby while Kate completely gives up on the idea.
The Ending: Finally, Motherhood
Kate takes Angie to the hospital when her water breaks and passes out during her delivery. When she wakes up, the doctor tells her that she is two months pregnant. Although it isn’t directly implied in the film, this pregnancy is probably an outcome of her relationship with her new boyfriend. With this, Kate is finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the closing scene of the movie, Kate and Angie can not only be seen as mothers to two beautiful daughters, but also as sisters to one another. Along with finally being able to experience motherhood, Kate also gets engaged to the love her life, Rob, while Angie’s boyfriend, Karl, tries his best to change his ways. It all ends well for the duo.
Read More: Best Motherhood Movies on Netflix
