Pregnancy test
N★★★
o matter how grown up the film, whenever I see Daniel Radcliffe, my mind always seems to paint in the glasses, cape and broomstick. I had a similar problem watching fellow Hogwarts alumni Matthew Lewis in this likeable Kiwi pregnancy comedy.
He may be in his early 30s these days but my subconscious mind wouldn’t buy little Neville Longbottom as a fretful father-to-be.
And poor grown-up Neville has a lot to put up with here. He plays English expat
Tim who runs a tree surgery firm with his manic wife Zoe (Rose Matafeo) in New Zealand.
Tim is delighted when he discovers Zoe is expecting their first child but, by then, Zoe has already fallen into a mania of denial. Determined not to become a “dick” (or boring mum), she has started to draw up a pre-birth bucket list which will subject Tim to swinging, drugs and competitive tree climbing.
There are no shortage of pregnancy comedies on streaming services and at times it feels like this is trying a little too hard to stand out from the crowd.
Writer Sophie Henderson and director
Curtis Vowell (a couple in real life) try to freshen up the formula by throwing in a string of loosely connected comic vignettes.
The episodic structure makes it difficult to get emotionally involved with the ups and downs of the couple’s relationship but it delivers accomplished physical comedy and snarky one-liners.
There’s a short but very funny scene where the reluctant mum-to-be seeks solace from a creepy “pregnophile” fetishist she meets online.
“It’s so hard to find a beautiful single woman with a bonus in her belly,” he tells her.
At times it feels like this is trying too hard to stand out from the crowd