The Scene magazine
Issue 33, January 2001
Maybe Baby
Comedy
Release: 15 January
Cert: 15 TBC
DIRECTOR: BEN ELTON
STARRING: HUGH LAURIE, JOELY RICHARDSON
Theatrical agent Lucy (Joely Richardson) and frustrated writer Sam (Hugh Laurie) are a thirty-something couple who decide that the one thing missing from their pretty decent lives is a baby. But after months of very energetic and increasingly bizarre attempts to conceive, they realise they are going to need the help of medical professionals. So as spontaneity is replaced by fertility treatment, Sam decides to turn their experience into a film script. But there's trouble brewing because Lucy knows nothing about it. At least not yet . . .
Ben Elton both writes and directs this amusing but bittersweet yarn, and is obviously on a quest to become the most ubiquitous bloke in showbusiness. Comedian, playwright, screenwriter, author and now director . . . whatever next?
Maybe Baby is really a 'film of two halves', the first acts is largely a barrage of slapstick fertility gags. Laurie and Richardson sit around with their jolly mates and discuss the internal workings of the female body. But as they begin to run out of strange new-age practices and arcane fertility rituals, Elton's script gets darker and the film begins to improve exponentially. Finally Lucy, now injected with large doses of hormones and verging on the edge of a breakdown, finds herself attracted to one of her clients while Sam, heavily involved with his screenplay, starts stealing large blocks of Lucy's private diary entries to include in his script.
And then there's the rest of the cast to include in this baby making saga. Their names read like a who's who of Brit comedy actors: James Purefoy, Tom Hollander, Joanna Lumley, Rowan Atkinson, Emma Thompson and Dawn French all pop up in various cameo roles.
Although it's not taxing, the film features loads of classy Brit comedy actors going through their paces in this entertaining romp.
Final Verdict Amusing, very silly and occasionally quite dark, this has a lot going for it. Elton's dialogue sparkles and a fine cast polish his lines beautifully.
