Movie Review: Rose Matafeo Isn’t (Just) Kidding Around in "Baby Done"

Expect the unexpected.

The cinema of New Zealand is varied and diverse: half of it stars Taika Waititi, while the other half is just produced by him.

Baby Done belongs to that second hemisphere of Aotearoa’s output, and gives Edinburgh Fringe Festival-winning comedian Rose Matafeo a showcase for her comic persona (and dramatic chops).

It also makes Matthew Lewis, better known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series, a bona fide romantic lead. Talk about a third-act rom-com glow up. Where’s his She’s All That?

Directed by Curtis Vowell and written by Sophie Henderson (actual partners whose experience with pregnancy served as inspiration), Baby Done stars Matafeo and Lewis as Zoe and Tim, dating arborists who are lamenting the fact that all their friends are starting to have kids. Everyone except the well-travelled and adventurous Molly (Emily Barclay), that is. Zoe wants to be well-travelled too, and has a vague dream of competing in a (*checks notes*) world tree climbing event in Vancouver? Hey, at least she’s not looking to make it at a marketing firm in Paris.

Zoe's ill-defined plans are put at risk when she discovers, early on, that she's actually pregnant with Tim’s baby. She keeps the news private for a bit, hoping to keep living it up while in denial about the impending birth. However, Tim finds out (pre-bungee jump, mercifully), so Zoe invites him to tick off his pre-parenthood bucket list as well. She offers him drugs and a threesome with Molly; the suddenly settled Tim would rather Zoe just join him at their antenatal classes. It’s a hard pass from her.

Baby Done is a welcome inversion of pictures like Knocked Up and Nine Months, though this one goes to darker and ultimately more realistic places with its gender-swapped stereotypes. Films often sideline pregnant characters into Gaia-like vessels for children, giving dads the leeway to be non-committal messes. Vowell and Henderson’s feature does it differently, and that alone is radical.

Matafeo, who could have coasted as the lead in any lightweight comedy, brings real heft to Zoe’s needs, frustrations and stubbornness, making her actions understandable and relatable. But she’s still very, very funny here, as are producer Waititi’s regulars Rachel House, Madeleine Sami and Loren Taylor, all in small supporting performances. I dunno, there’s just something innately hilarious about the NZ sense of humour—partly forged and made famous on screen by Waititi—in which jokes are thrown-away offhandedly, and equal laughs come from the gentle chemistry of its actors. Honestly, Baby Done has the best line readings since Jacinda remarked: “We’re just having a bit of an earthquake here, Ryan.”

3.5/5

Baby Done is now in Australian cinemas. Rated M for coarse language, sex and drug use.