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Susan Granger's review of "BABY GENIUSES" (Columbia TriStar Pictures)
If you enjoyed the "Look Who's Talking" trilogy, then this is the kind of comedy you'll enjoy. The gimmick of having babies speak is revisited here with a plot that revolves around the idea that all babies are born with the wisdom of the ages and the ability to speak with each other. So, what adults hear as gurgling "baby talk" is actually a sophisticated dialogue. And, through CGI technology, the babies' lips move exactly like adults' lips, simulating conversation, along with appropriate facial expressions. Writer/director Bob Clark and co-writer Greg Michael have concocted a morality play, with its conflict between good and evil, in which twins are separated at birth by a scheming, wildly ambitious child psychiatrist, Dr. Kinder (Kathleen Turner) who runs BABYCO, the world's largest manufacturer of baby products. She keeps one, named Sly, to be raised with constant discipline and training in a secret, experimental research research lab - where he interacts with the best and brightest of other baby geniuses - except he's always trying to escape. Meanwhile, his twin, Whit, is raised by Dr. Kinder's niece (Kim Cattrall) who, with her husband (Peter MacNicol), runs an old-fashioned nursery school, where love, tenderness, and good sense reign. It's the antithesis of BABYCO. Inevitably, the babies meet - at a shopping mall at Christmastime - and, in a mistaken-identity switch, they find themselves in each other's environment. What works in this film is the inherent whimsical appeal of the babies - who are actually played by the Fitzgerald triplets from Vancouver. What doesn't work is the psychobabble and contrived amusement. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Baby Geniuses" is a flimsy 5. Cute but cloying - unless you're really into watching the screen antics of two-year olds.
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