''Nobody's Baby'' is a 2001

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

David Seltzer David Seltzer (born February 12, 1940) is an American screenwriter, producer and director, perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for ''The Omen'' (1976) and '' Bird on a Wire'' (1990). As writer-director, Seltzer's credits include the ...

and starring

Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...

and

Skeet Ulrich Skeet Ulrich (; born Bryan Ray Trout on January 20, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in popular 1990s films, including Billy Loomis in '' Scream'' (1996), Chris Hooker in '' The Craft'' (1996) and Vincent Lopiano in '' ...

Plot

In this comedy, Billy Raedeen (

) escapes the law after being convicted with his partner in crime Buford Bill (

). On his way to Utah, Billy rescues a baby from an auto wreck and decides to keep it though he knows next to nothing about caring for an infant. He gets help from diner waitress Shauna Louise (Radha Mitchell) and her neighbor Estelle (Mary Steenburgen). When Buford tracks Billy down, he sees the baby as a monetary potential. However, Billy and Shauna Louise have grown attached to the child and they are not willing to give her up.

Cast

Release

Following its premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, the film was not released theatrically. It received a USA

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

release on August 20, 2002.

Reception

Geoffrey Gilmore Geoffrey Gilmore is the Director of the Tribeca Film Festival and a member of the UCLA Producers Program faculty. Career Creative Director of Tribeca Enterprises, a New York company that includes the Tribeca Film Festival, the Tribeca Cinemas an ...

, director of the Sundance Film Festival, called the film "a pure delight from start to finish": :If you were impressed watching Oldman play a congressman, wait until you see him do comedy and

line dance A line dance is a choreographed dance in which a group of people dance along to a repeating sequence of steps while arranged in one or more lines or rows. These lines usually face all in the same direction, or less commonly face each other.Knight, ...

! With terrific turns by Mary Steenburgen and Radha Mitchell, Utah scenery, hilarious dialogue, and the best joke in a film this side of '' Something about Mary'', ''Nobody's Baby'' is a wonderfully entertaining odyssey that should bring Seltzer nothing but accolades. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', reviewing the film after its January 21, 2001 premiere at Sundance, described it as "aim ngsomewhere between ''

Dumb and Dumber ''Dumb and Dumber'' is a 1994 American buddy comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly, who cowrote the screenplay with Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin. It is the first installment in the ''Dumb and Dumber'' franchise. Starring Jim Carrey a ...

'' and ''

Three Men and a Baby ''Three Men and a Baby'' is a 1987 American comedy film directed by Leonard Nimoy. It stars Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson as three bachelors as they attempt to adapt their lives to de facto fatherhood with the arrival of the love ...

''. The film's "witless script wrings few laughs from its retread conceits...What's most toxic, however, is having to watch these actors sweat for their paychecks. Oldman vanishes into

mutton chops Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term ''sideburns'' is a 19th-century corruption of the original ''burnsides'', named ...

and

Walter Brennan Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in '' Come and Get It'' (1936), ''Kentucky'' (1938), and '' The Westerner ...

mannerisms, gamely making an idiot of himself, to absolutely no humorous result....Steenburgen, Greene and O'Neill are allowed to be little more than unpleasant; Matthew Modine surfaces in a nothing role. Twinkling amidst the cow pies, Ulrich clearly relishes playing dum-dum, and his disarming sweetness lends the film whatever fleeting conviction it can claim." Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

records a 0% approval rating and a 3.95/10 average score, based on six reviews.''Nobody's Baby''
''

''. Retrieved October 24, 2019.

References

External links

* * {{David Seltzer 2001 films 2001 comedy films American comedy films Artisan Entertainment films Films directed by David Seltzer 2000s English-language films Films produced by Boaz Davidson 2000s American films