At several junctures in this New Zealand-set, Taika Waititi-backed comedy, Rose Matafeo may as well turn to the camera and wince. With her black eyeliner, unflinching delivery and wildly expressive face, lines can easily be drawn between her character Zoe and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. Unlike Fleabag, however, Zoe is at the top of her game. She’s a highly successful tree surgeon, with a supportive partner who shares her disdain for such things as gender reveal parties. The fallout is understandable, then, when Zoe’s unplanned pregnancy is confirmed, as are her and Tim’s poles-apart reactions. While Zoe goes out clubbing, Tim — driven by his father’s abandonment — stays at home and nests. Denial and despair drive a growing wedge between the former teammates.
It’s the unalloyed charm of Matafeo and Lewis that makes _Baby Done_ work.
Women eschewing responsibility isn’t groundbreaking in contemporary comedy — everyone from Awkwafina to the aforementioned Waller-Bridge have built their names upon this in recent years. Writer Sophie Henderson keeps the format fresh by setting Zoe’s denial against the unique world of competitive tree-climbing, while presenting a backable relationship made up of tender exchanges and belly laugh-inducing gags (a climactic glitter-bomb incident being one of them).
It’s the unalloyed charm of Matafeo and Lewis that makes Baby Done work. Lewis — firmly leaving his Neville Longbottom days at Hogwarts — matches Matafeo’s brittle and impatient performance with an enduring wholesomeness, but doesn’t sacrifice being funny in doing so. There’s an authenticity to both the camaraderie and heartbreak shared between them that compensates for Curtis Vowell’s occasionally outdated direction, which leans heavily on old romantic-comedy tropes. Negation of pregnancy is an issue that rarely crops up in film, and exploring its impact in a comedy film is risky. Yet Baby Done treads the line respectfully, balancing broad jokes with pain and empathy. When you find yourself sympathising with a pregnancy fetishist, you know that you’re in capable hands.
