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Sundance Review: Birds of America
Posted Jan 30th 2008 5:02PM by Kim Voynar
Dysfunctional families and indie films go together like peanut butter and
chocolate, and "Birds of
America," directed by playwright Craig Lucas, has dysfunction in
abundance. Morrie (Matthew Perry),
who raised his younger siblings Jay (Ben Foster) and Ida (Ginnifer
Goodwin) after their father's
death, now lives in the family home with his wife, Betty (Lauren Graham).
Morrie is a college prof
desperately seeking tenure, and the person who is most in a position to
make that happen for Morrie
is his friend Paul (Gary Wilmes), who lives right next door with his wife,
Laura (Hilary Swank), in
their perfect house, with their perfectly maintained flower bed, with
their perfectly adorable
infant.
Morrie is one of those guys who carries the weight of the world on his
shoulders, and he represses
his emotions so tightly that the stress of it all has manifested itself in
a case of constipation
so extreme he has a home office set-up in his bathroom so he can work
while trying to ... work all
that out. Betty, meanwhile, wants desperately to have a perfect life and a
child like Laura, but
Morrie won't consider parenthood until he makes tenure. Since their whole
future happiness is
dependent upon whether Paul recommends Morrie for tenure, both Morrie and
Betty go overboard in
trying not to offend Paul and Laura -- even to the extent of not
complaining that Laura's dog does
his business in Morrie and Betty's yard. Unlike Morrie, the dog does not
have a constipation issue,
so they are constantly cleaning up after it.
Adding to the marital tension, Morrie gets a call that Jay has attempted
suicide by lying in the
middle of the road; ever the responsible older brother, he brings Jay home
where he can keep an eye
on him while he recuperates. When Ida finds out about Jay, she shows up
too and we have the three
dysfunctional sibs under one roof, while Betty struggles to keep up
pretenses for the neighbors to
secure that all-important tenure.
Perry gives a solid performance as Morrie -- it's interesting to see him
in a role that has more
angst than the slapstick comedy he was known for as Chandler Bing in
Friends.
***Lauren Graham, also stepping outside the boundaries of her
fast-talking television role in
Gilmore Girls, plays well off Perry as the wife who just wants to move on
with life and be happy.
It's a nice role for Graham, the highlight of which is a great speech
where Betty goes off on Jay
when he asks her whether her new washer and drier make her "happy."***
Foster (who was great in 3:10 to Yuma last year) has a nice turn in the
film. His character is
the kind of role that Owen Wilson gets a lot -- the hapless, laid-back
loser who just wants to
chill and enjoy life -- but Foster tries to give his character a little
more depth. Goodwin is also
solid as the free-spirited, messed-up younger sister, and I expect we'll
be seeing more of her on
the indie-film circuit.
The film has some rough spots; Swank (who's production company was
involved in the film as well)
feels largely wasted as Laura. Her character lacks the depth of Graham's
Betty and she seems to
serve no purpose other than as the model of the life Betty longs to have.
Also, we never learn
enough about what brought the siblings to this point in their lives to
really get why they're so
messed up or to care enough about what happens to them. After setting us
up with "here are three
siblings, and here are their quirks and issues," the script meanders along
for a while before tying
things up in a forced "hey, we'd better wrap this up, it's getting too
long" sort of way. Lucas is
a decent enough director, but perhaps since writing is really his forte,
he should turn his writing
talents to crafting his own scripts to direct, or adapting more of his
plays for the screen.
Overall, Birds of America is a nice enough film , but it's kept from its
potential to be really
good by being a little too trite and formulaic to ever strike that solid
chord that would have made
it an unforgettable Sundance film. It's not quite funny enough to appeal
as a rom-com, nor quite
darkly comedic enough to satisfy; what we're left with, then, is pretty
much just another average
"dysfunctional family" story with a some good moments here and there; as a
result, it just ends up
feeling more like a film fest snack than a meal.
--
David
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/GilmoreGirls.htm
LORELAI: What is right anyway, you know?
Who defines right? And if eating cake is wrong, I don't want to be right.
FRAN: I'm bringing out a mocha crunch cream.
LORELAI: So, ethics?
RORY: Highly subjective and completely overrated.
LORELAI: That's my girl.
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