An amateur cartoonist meets her unborn child in Norwegian writer/director Yngvild Sve Flikke’s irreverent comedy.
In 2007, Jason Reitman’s Juno became an instant cult classic, Elliot Page’s note-perfect performance and screenwriter Diablo Cody’s ironic dark humour creating a comfort comedy about unwanted teen pregnancy that was bold enough not to relegate its politics to the sidelines.
The lack of desire to have a child is the motor for Norwegian writer/director Yngvild Sve Flikke’s Ninjababy, which has a similar flavour of edgy comedy. Despite its obvious similarities to Juno, however, this film offers a refreshing interpretation of a familiar premise, with a new kind of empathy for female bodily autonomy.
Rake (Kristine Kujath Thorp) is a graphic design student in her mid-twenties who shares a flat with best friend Ingrid (Tora Christine Dietrichson). She cracks jokes at inappropriate times, is generally irreverent, and doesn’t let the brevity of her youth go to waste, partaking in regular party-going and all of the illicit substances that such an act may entail.
All of this is immediately apparent because the film has a unique narration style, one that allows the audience to access Rakel’s innermost thoughts via overlaid animation intended to emulate the notes and sketches from the career as a comic artist she would like to have someday. One sketch sequence reads, ‘5 THINGS RAKEL WANTS TO BE. ASTRONAUT. BEER TASTER. GLOBETROTTER. FOREST RANGER. COMIC ARTIST,’ as she awaits the result of a pregnancy test.
When Rakel subsequently tries to exercise her right to a legal abortion, she is faced with her worst case scenario: She isn’t just a few months along, she’s at the end of her second term and thus cannot terminate the pregnancy. This surprising development not only explains the film’s title, it ushers in the arrival of the Ninjababy himself, an animated manifestation of the foetus inside Rakel’s womb voiced by Herman Tømmeraas.
The title character and the ubiquitousness of this extra layer of animation, in an otherwise live-action film, are tasteful additions that create a convivial mood without undermining the seriousness of the subject matter. The film thus follows Rakel as she navigates her own personal rock bottom, and it does so gracefully. The maintained focus on Rakel’s autonomy is what makes the film so interesting, and there is no compromise on Flikke’s commitment to her protagonist’s desires.
Published 9 Sep 2021
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