Mum Not the ’s Word IDENTITY AND AUTONOMY IN CURTIS VOWELL’S BABY DONE
Baby Done, a dryly hilarious 2020 comedy from Kiwi husband-and-wife director Curtis Vowell and writer Sophie Henderson, opens by showing us its protagonist, Zoe (Rose Matafeo), as she sees herself.
‘I’m a leader; I’m a soldier; I’m an animal with supernatural powers,’ raps Wild Belle’s Natalie Bergman on the soundtrack as Zoe clips on a harness, straps on a helmet, nimbly climbs an enormous conifer tree and begins chainsawing off one of its branches. Her English boyfriend, Tim (Matthew Lewis), stands outside the designated branch-drop zone, also wearing an arborist’s safety gear. He looks anxiously up at Zoe and frets that she’s chainsawing one-handed. ‘You try and get it any other way!’ she retorts.
Their dynamic is set: she’s bold and physically confident; he’s cautious and emotionally labile. (He can’t help crying sympathetically whenever Zoe does.) But he’s also her champion: he proudly tells their apprentice Sonny (Matenga Ashby) that Zoe’s about to compete in the National Tree Climbing Championships.
As she and Tim attend yet another elaborate baby shower – where all the food and drinks are baby-themed, and everyone either has a baby, is having a baby or is a baby – Zoe reiterates the stages of social capitulation to her similarly fancy-free friend Molly (Emily Barclay): ‘Married, house, baby, done.’
But she’s reluctant to announce, or even accept, that it’s happening to her.
