"My Baby's Daddy"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Eddie Griffin as LONNIE Anthony Anderson as G Michael Imperioli as DOMINIC Paula Jai Parker as ROLONDA Joanna Bacalso as NIA Ling Bai as XIXI Marsha Thomason as BRANDY John Amos as UNCLE VIRGIL Rated PG-13 Studio: Miramax Directed by: Cheryl Dunye Back to DVD Review Home |
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Here’s a story that unfortunately happens too often. G (Anthony Anderson), Lonnie (Eddie Griffin) and Dominic (Michael Imperioli) have been friends ever since they were in diapers. In the 20s, they are all trying to pursue their career dreams - some more successfully than others. However, when each one gets his girlfriend pregnant, they must face the world as a soon-to-be daddy. Once the children are born, the three friends learn how to be real fathers and what kind of sacrifice that entails.
I've seen reviews of "My Baby's Daddy" that have criticized it for being everything from sexist to racist. I've heard complaints that it paints women in a bad light. But here's the reality of the situation. There are people out there having kids who shouldn't be having kids. The blame is to share between men and women. why is it that only the men can be dogs in a relationship movie? I give a lot of credit to "My Baby's Daddy" for having the guts to actually point out the foibles of the women in these relationships.
You can't forget that a woman directed this film. Director Cheryl Dunye admits in the behind-the-scenes documentary that her story actually mirrored the character of Dominic's. While they don't come out and say it, they clearly imply that Dunye herself had a child before she was ready and then came to the realization that she was a lesbian.
All the "Heather Has Two Mommies" jokes aside, while this is hardly the norm in America, this situation does exist. (I personally know people this has happened to, in fact.) Dunye does a nice job avoiding a "lesbians are people too" sermon and actually has the strength to realize that this type of relationship in which the father figure is replaced by another woman is not ideal for the child. She doesn't have Dominic turn Nia (Joanna Bacalso) back over to his side of the team, but the message of the film is that no matter what the case, a baby does need a daddy.
There are many similarities between this film and last year's Eddie Murphy vehicle "Daddy Day Care," mainly the theme of fathers taking a more active role in raising their kids. But while "Daddy Day Care" was a pedantic set-up for weak jokes, "My Baby's Daddy" actually tries to tell the story from the parent's side.
Sure, there are the obvious scenes of bumbling parenthood, including G changing a diaper and getting peed on. But any parent should find the humor in this because it has most likely happened to them at some point. I personally remember the day after my first child was born, I was changing his diaper and he managed to go number one and number two in the few seconds I had the diaper off. Nothing can make you feel more like a failure than that.
But you suck it up. In fact, not to sound like a Dr. Laura devotee, but I am proud to call myself my babies' daddy. I have two young boy - one three year old and a one year old. More than twenty years after "Mr. Mom," our society still holds a stigma against fathers. It's assumed we don't know crap about raising kids - even though there are plenty of us that do.
Oh, sure, we are our own worst enemies at times when some of us fathers refuse to change a poopie diaper. But there are plenty of us that will. (Although I do notice that my wife and her friends will gladly change the diaper of a friend's baby. That's where I draw the line. You see, I'm not exactly what you'd call someone who likes kids. My kids are perfect. Everyone else's are dirty, smelly, ugly, obnoxious walking petrie dishes.)
The DVD extras are a little lean and only include a behind-the-scenes documentary and a gag reel. There are about a half hour of deleted scenes, which is pretty heavy. You’ll have to set aside some time just to watch those alone. But with a running time of 86 minutes, you’ll still burn through the disc in less than two hours.
“My Baby’s Daddy” is far from a perfect movie. There are some forced jokes, and some are just downright unfunny. But it’s really nice to see a film that challenges men to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their situations. It doesn't pretend to have an answer for everything or to even present a complete role model. But it does have the characters make the best of the situation. And that’s better than the alternative.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French language track; English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
