Baby Done

This review may contain spoilers!

Rose Matafeo powerhouses as the lead of this film but the feature itself just doesn't have enough going for it to hold your attention. I would give Baby Done a 4.5/10.

Baby Done follows young couple, Zoe and Tim, a pair of arborists who have often scoffed at their other young friends who have gotten married and had kids early in life. Now that Zoe has fallen pregnant she is hurtling through a crisis of achieving a number of her adventurous goals before the baby arrives, while Tim is slowly embracing the idea of being a father. This film thrives when it focuses on Zoe and her struggle with being an expecting mother, it's a very real conversation about how young women feel towards motherhood. I think seeing a character deal with the mental challenges of having their entire life altered by something they hadn't expected or aren't entirely ready for is such an engaging discussion that this film handles very well. The soundtrack for Baby Done is this really vibrant blend of tracks that place it as a convincing indie-comedy, I like the nice upswing tone with a scattering of music used very effectively for comedic effect.

 

Rachel House, who played the Principal, is such a memorable standout role in her scene; House has a very dour tone throughout yet manages to deadpan in some comedy and present a charismatic role that takes care of her onscreen students. Emily Barclay, who played Molly, is one of the comedic performers that I felt really stood out; Barclay plays the humour of her role with a lot of range and her chemistry with Matafeo as onscreen best friends is one of the best bonds in the film. Nic Sampson, who played Brian, is one of the more awkward performances to watch but his ability to commit to the role make this an impressive portrayal; Sampson has an easy-going charisma and a strong ability to cut right to the humour in whichever scene he's in. Madeleine Sami, who played the Birthing Nurse, has a very fun no-nonsense attitude that works well against Matafeo's stubborn immaturity; Sami just sparks some of the best line delivery of the film and stands out majorly in the final act.

However, the best performance came from Rose Matafeo, who played Zoe. Matafeo has really placed herself strongly as one of New Zealand's best current comedic performers and this film highlights that well. Zoe is a very boisterous, self-confident person in how she presents herself; she's sure in her work and fiercely competitive. I really enjoyed watching as Matafeo took that personality and contrasted it against the news of impending motherhood; seeing a character scrabble so completely to affirm herself after that bombshell news impacts her life. We get to see Zoe go through flat out denial, complete rejection of her situation and steadily distance herself from everyone around her. But watching Matafeo then build her character back up, basically pull together when she reaches that final moment makes this such a wonderful well-rounded performance.

While this film is amazing from a lead character perspective, the story struggles to hold attention and the comedic qualities fall short more than they succeed. The main couple of Zoe and Tim is a pretty turbulent one to watch in some regards but they really don't have much chemistry and seem more at odds with one another than in love with one another. The film constantly struggles to balance out whose perspective to present and it certainly fails to cast either protagonist in a redeemable light for long. In fact the flaw of this movie is that while Zoe's story arc is interesting well-written there is no denying that most of the characters act like terrible people. There's never a common line of empathy and it takes a long time for characters' conflict to actually reach resolution. The comedy is another major pitfall throughout, mainly because there Isn't a very consistent approach towards delivery. This film packages itself as a comedy quite strongly at first but then goes for several scenes without even attempting to generate some form of humour. Baby Done manages a few witty lines but has several performers that flounder in a comedic setting and a lot of cringe comedy that really makes this a difficult film to find entertainment in. The cinematography for the feature is amateur at best, many scenes boast basic framing and there's no sense of dynamic style to the piece. The editing set a slow, laborious pace that lengthened scenes long past what they needed to be.

 

Matthew Lewis, who played Tim, flounders as the other leading protagonist of the film; Lewis' lead comes across as a bit of a bully at times and he struggles to find his place in the feature. Fasitua Amosa and Loren Taylor, who played Sefa and Penny respectively, really just don't seem like particularly believable parents in this feature; Amosa deadpans his way through being a dad while Taylor tries too hard to match up to Matafeo in terms of a mother/daughter relationship. Olivia Tennet, who played Beth, is a rather peculiar role that I never really understood in this film; Tennet's way of eerily edging her role into the main narrative felt off and seemed like a weirdly constructed subplot. Matenga Ashby, who played Sonny, is very much torn between being the over the top comedic relief and the surrogate kid character throughout the film; Ashby seems very torn between the two roles and almost seems cast to play a character that is too young for him.