BABY DONE
New Zealand, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Rose Matafeo, Matthew Lewis, Emily Barclay, Madeleine Sami, Rachel House, Ryan O' Kane.
Directed by Curtis Vowell.
At one stage, there is a listing of what women were expected to do in life: marry, have a house, baby – and, with that achieved, baby done.
This is a pregnancy film. There is plenty of comedy. And there are serious themes. In fact, quite a pleasing combination. (And, the executive producer is Taika Waititi with his celebrated sense of humour.)
The film depends on audience response to Zoe, the central character. She is played with quite some zest and sense of humour, with an appeal to pathos, by Rose Matafeo. Zoe is an arborist, working with her partner Tim in various parks and gardens. She has a particular skill in climbing trees – and jovial there is a worldwide competition for tree climbers in Canada and she is determined to go, winning a heat and qualifying.
But, Zoe is something of a hard case, Tim mentioning marriage at various times and Zoe having firm stances on no marriage. They go to a baby shower with all the mothers and fathers billing and cooing, Zoe rather put off. In the meantime, she has gone to have a pregnancy test – and she is pregnant. (This sequence introduces us to Madaleine Sami as, according to the credits, the Birthing Nurse – a down-to-earth woman of solid common sense who has no hesitation in giving straight and blunt answers and reappears, to the pleasure of the audience, in further sequences but, most especially, at the birth itself. And she is played by Madeleine Sami who co-wrote/directed and starred in that eccentric New Zealand comedy, The Breaker-Upperers?.)
Tim is a very nice man, played by Matthew Lewis (English actor who was in all the Harry Potter films). It is only when Zoe hesitates at a bungee jump and the technician twigs that she is pregnant, that Tim becomes aware of it and, of course, transforms into that protective, over-protective, perpetually caring about-to-be father. Which Zoe likes, but doesn’t like, especially when she insists on going to the competition in Canada.
Of course, there are quite some ups and downs. Tim likes going to the birthing classes and becomes very friendly with another mother. Zoe gradually lets her friends know and Tim and Zoe visit Zoe’s parents, white mother, Maori father who is a gynaecologist and surgeon. Zoe also makes a list of what she and Tim want to do before they have the baby – and Tim foolishly mentions a threesome with the Zoe’s best friend. When Zoe sets it up, it is an almost-immediate disaster. Zoe also encounters a man whose fetish is pregnant women. Zoe appreciates the attention but, ultimately, when he does a plaster cast of her body, it is too much.
No prize for guessing how the film ends but, of course, that is the delight, Tim so happy, Zoe loving her baby, the birthing nurse having laid down the law for both Zoe and Tim, Tim’s video of highlights of the pregnancy, and happy photos of mother and father and baby, celebrating life.
1. The title? Women’s achievements – and baby done?
2. A New Zealand film, the city settings, homes, parks and gardens, the countryside, the sea? The New Zealand sense of humour? The New Zealand accent?
3. Zoe’s story, Rose Matafeo and her screen presence, solid, jovial? Age? Partnership with Tim, comfortable with him? Her work as an arborist, with Tim, skill at climbing trees, the international competition in Canada, her determination, practising, the heat, accepted?
4. Tim and Zoe going to the baby celebration, the parents and their delight, the babies, Zoe getting a fright? Her not wanting to be there? Leaving? Molly present, best friend, her international trips and conclusions?
5. The bungee jump, her hesitation, the technician, blunt saying she was pregnant, Tim’s shock? Her pushing him over? The audience knowing she was pregnant, the visit to the clinic, the birthing nurse and her down to earth manner, orders? Zoe’s reaction?
6. Doing the test again for Tim? The visit to the nurse, the ultrasound, Zoe not wanting to know the gender, Tim wanting to know and its being written on the note? Tim becoming protective, overprotective? The going to the sessions? Tim liking the sessions, the encounter with Beth, giving her a lift, her flirting?
7. Zoe and the list of what they wanted to do, dancing, Tim and the ecstasy tablets in safe circumstances, the threesome with Molly? Zoe setting it up, the fiasco of the threesome? Molly discovering Zoe it was pregnant – Zoe trying to tell her, Molly splashing in the fountains, relieved to hear that she wasn’t pregnant?
8. Zoe irritated with Tim, the decision to go to Canada, climbing the tree, stranded, Tim’s friend trying to rescue, the having to call in the ladder?
9. Zoe, the connection with Brian, his fetish about pregnant women, his response to her, awkwardness, friendship, his doing the plaster cast of her body, her running away?
10. Her visit to her parents, bun in the oven, her mother, her father and his marrying background, surgeon?
11. Zoe, the passport, going on the plane, the collapse, in hospital? The birthing nurse and her laying down the law, Zoe getting off the bed, the phone call to Tim, his being with his friend and the fireworks, hurrying, the bath, the blood, the nurse and her comments? The birth, Tim and the photo, the confetti, his being ousted? The aftermath, Tim and the video of the pregnancy, the photos of the three? A celebration of life?
