Nobody's Baby (2001) Reviews

A slack-jawed yokel discovers the joys of parenthood while trying to avoid the law in this gleefully tasteless comedy. Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and Buford (Gary Oldman) are two dim-witted rednecks who grew up together in an orphanage; as adults, the pair ended up in prison after reading other people's mail for a laugh was interpreted as mail theft by the authorities. Buford, who is marginally more intelligent than Billy, plans a jailbreak, and after escaping prison in a paddy wagon, the pair split up, with plans to reunite later. While en route to Utah, Billy accidentally causes an auto wreck that leaves behind only one survivor -- a baby, whom Billy is able to rescue. But Billy knows next to nothing about caring for a infant, and truck stop waitress Shauna Louise (Radha Mitchell) bravely offers to help show him the ropes, with her neighbor Estelle (Mary Steenburgen) volunteering to nurse, having given her own baby up for adoption a few days earlier. When Buford tracks Billy down, he sees the baby as a potential gold mine, imagining that some relative somewhere would be willing to pay a ransom for his return. However, Billy and Shauna Louise have grown attached to the child and they aren't willing to give him up. While Buford tries to formulate a Plan B, sleazy used-car salesman Norman (Ed O'Neill) arrives on the scene; he knows Billy and Shauna Louise didn't come by the baby honestly and is eager to use this knowledge to his advantage. Nobody's Baby was written and directed by David Seltzer, who previously dealt with troublesome children as the screenwriter for the horror hit The Omen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi