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Professional Women Come Undone in the Face of Infertility

By Jihan Thompson

In April the MC staffers were treated to a screening of May cover girl Tina Fey's new flick, Baby Mama, in theaters on April 25th. The fetchingly spectacled Ms. Fey reinforces her snarky Mary Tyler Moore status with her portrayal of Kate, a 37-year-old career gal who discovers she can¹t conceive-- mommyhood the only deal she can’t close. Kate hooks up with Angie, a Big Gulp-guzzling, American Idol-loving surrogate. Odd couple hilarity ensues and an unlikely buddy comedy about the ticking of that nasty biological clock takes off. That got us thinking about other films devoted to professional women come undone in the face of infertility. It¹s a painful topic, to be sure, yet many a clever director has played it up for poignant laughs. Here are our favorites:

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The Baby Maker, 1970

Slideshow, Blog, 0508, baby maker, Barbara Hershey baby maker The Baby Maker, 1970\r\nEight years before the first test tube baby is born, this “period piece” focuses on hippie surrogate Tish Gray (Barbara Hershey) and her relationship with a childless couple. She and the hopeful baby daddy (Sam Groom) get knocked up the old fashioned way, in a cheap hotel room just like the good lord intended.\r\n\r\n

Raising Arizona, 1987

Slideshow, Blog, 0508, raising arizona raising arizona Raising Arizona, 1987\r\nChildless and desperate, an ex-con, played by a wildly-coiffed Nicolas Cage, and his little desert flower (the indomitable Holly Hunter) hatch an infantile Robin Hood\r\nscheme to steal a baby from an achingly fertile family. The original Coen\r\nbrothers desert masterpiece.\r\n

Immediate Family, 1989

Slideshow, Blog, 0508, immediate family immediate family Immediate Family, 1989\r\nGlenn Close and James Wood are an upper class, childless Seattle couple\r\nwho seek out the assistance of a private adoption agency. When a pregnant mid-western gal\r\n(Mary Stewart Masterson) arrives to check out the prospective parents for\r\nher unborn baby, it’s a hot mess as she tries to figure out if more money\r\nequals better parenting.\r\n\r\n

My Cousin Vinnie, 1992

Slideshow, Blog, 0508, my cousin vinnie, marissa tomey, my cousin vinnie My Cousin Vinnie, 1992\r\nMarisa Tomei may very have nabbed her Supporting Actress Oscar for this whine, delivered in her best Brooklynese to co-star Joe Pesci: \"Well, I hate to bring it up, because I know you got enough pressure on you already. BUT, we agreed to get married as soon as you won your first case. Meanwhile, ten years later, my niece, the daughter of my sister, is gettin\' married! My biological clock is tickin\' like this, and the way this case is goin\', I ain\'t never gettin\' married!\"\r\n

Junior, 1994

Slideshow, Blog, 0508 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito Junior, 1994\r\nThe improbable Nineties comedy duo of Schwarzenegger & Devito gave us this critical clunker \r\nabout a scientist who implants an egg in himself when his funding for the experimental drug “Expectane” gets cut. Mind-numbing fare, but they can’t all be Twins.

A Smile Like Yours, 2000

Slideshow, Blog, 0508 a smile like yours, greg kinnear, tina fey A Smile Like Yours, 2000\r\nGreg Kinnear, who plays Tina Fey’s love interest in Baby Mama, has stumbled\r\ndown the infertile road before, starring opposite Lauren Holly as a San Fran couple frantic to have a baby. Enlisting all kinds of New Age shenanigans to get Holly¹s eggo preggo, Kinnear’s lazy swimmers struggle to get upstream.\r\n

Juno, 2007

Slideshow, Blog, 0508, Juno, Summer Movies Actors Allison Janney, Ellen Page, and Olivia Thirlby and writer Diablo Cody at the ELLE Green Lounge at Film Independent\'s 2008 Spirit Awards at the Santa Monica Pier on February 23, 2008 in Santa Monica, California.\r\n\r\n Juno, 2007\r\nSure Ellen Page hogged all the kudos for this year’s Oscar darling, Juno, but it\r\nwas Jennifer Garner’s seemingly uptight yuppie palpable yearning for a child that gave the movie it¹s considerable heart. \r\n

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