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Bird People
France 2014
produced by Denis Freyd for Archipel 35
directed by Pascal Ferran
starring Josh Charles, Anais Demoustier, Roschdy Zem, Taklyt Vongdara, Geoffrey Cantor, Camélia Jordana, Radha Mitchell, Akéla Sari, Anne Azoulay, Manuel Vallade, Hippolyde Girardot, Renjen Joseph, Erin Elizabeth Burns, Genevieve Adams, Clark Johnson, Ian Fenelon, Julien Cosquéric, Catherine Ferran, Philippe Duclos (voice), Mathieu Amalric (voice)
written by Guillaume Bréaud, Pascale Ferran, music by Béatrice Thiriet, visual effects by BUF
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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One day, out of the blue, and while residing in an airport hotel in
Paris, France, American businessman Gary (Josh Charles) decides to leave
his old life behind, his (well-paid) job, his wife (Radha Mitchell), his
kids, to just start anew somewhere else. This or course starts a minor
uproar back in the USA by all of them affected by it, but it takes a load
off his shoulders. Audrey (Anais Demoustier) is a maid in the hotel Gary
is staying, and she couldn't be more bored by doing the same day after day
- until one day, on the hotel's rooftop, she turns into a sparrow,
withough the least bit of explanation. This enables her to see the world
around her from a very new perspective, literally and also metaphorically,
and opens her heart to a lot of things. After spending the night as a
bird, Audrey (again inexplicably) turns back human the next morning. Gary
and Audrey only meet in the last scene of the movie. They are perfect
strangers, but they do seem to notice there is a weird bond between them. Bird
People is a film one can't help but being of two minds about: On one
hand there are funny scenes, toughing scenes, profound scenes, the whole
thing is well-acted and brilliantly filmed ... but on the other hand, as a
whole the film just goes on too long, isn't as homogenic as its supposed
to be, some scenes fail to make too much sense or are just fluff, or they
try to hit home a point too hard. Now by no means a trainwreck, this
could have really been improved had more care been put into streamlining
the script and making it more concise, because the concept is really
ineresting.
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