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Bird Box
USA 2018
produced by Dylan Clark, Chris Morgan, Clayton Townsend, Susanne Bier (executive), Sandra Bullock (executive), Ainsley Davies (executive), Alexa Faigen (executive), Eric Heisserer (executive), Ryan Lewis (executive) for Chris Morgan Productions, Dylan Clark Productions, Bluegrass Films, Universal/Netflix
directed by Susanne Bier
starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Tom Hollander, Colson Baker (= Machine Gun Kelly), BD Wong, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Vivien Lyra Blair, Julian Edwards, Parminder Nagra, Rebecca Pidgeon, Amy Gumenick, Taylor Handley, Happy Anderson, Kyle Beatty, Ashley Alva, David Dastmalchian, Keith Jardine, Kristopher Logan, Shirley Butler, Aden Calderon, Chanon Finley, Frank Mottek, Danny Max, Debra Mark
screenplay by Eric Heisserer, based on the novel by Josh Malerman, music by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Malorie (Sandra Bullock) has to go down a treacherous river in a
rowboat with her two children (Vivien Lyra Blair, Julian Edwards) while
wearing a blindfold the entire trip. As for the why, we have to go back 5
years ... Malorie's pregnant when she lears of a bizarre wave of
suicides that have swept over Africa and Europe - and suddenly the people
in her hometown act bizarre as well, and start killing themselves. And all
at the same time, too, putting Malorie directly in harm's way - when a
stranger, Tom (Trevante Rhodes), drags her into the house of Douglas (John
Malkovich). Now here's a little background, it seems all those who kill
themselves see something so terrible (it's never shown to the audience)
that they just have to commit suicide - so as long as one doesn't see
whatever it is, one's fine. Just whatever it is is everywhere outside, so
it's imperative to stay indoors with all the windows covered up at all
times ... or wear blindfolds when outside. So several people from all
walks of life have gathered at Douglas' place, who plays reluctant host to
the lot of them, including Malorie and Tom. And he's extremely opposed to
them taking in someone else from the outside days later, pregnant Olympia
(Danielle Macdonald), but Malorie and Tom, who are the moral base of the
group, pretty much insist. Eventually supplies run low, but luckily one
of them, Charlie (Lil Rel Howery) is an employee at a local supermarket,
thus can let them in if only they can make the way - with their car
windows covered, trying to get their merely by GPS ... and they manage to
make it, too. And at the supermarket, Charlie, so far more of a coward
than anything else, is allowed to die a hero, while Malorie detects a
bunch of birds in a cage and takes them with her as pets - and because
they are sensible to whatever it is that threatens mankind and give early
warning. Back at the house, Olympia lets a new stranger in, against
Douglas' expected protest - but initially Gary (Tom Hollander) seems to be
a regular guy who tells them he has escaped a bunch of psychopaths, who
are the only ones to stand the view of whatever it is without being driven
to suicide. And then both Malorie and Olympia go into labour, and while
everyone's distracted because of that, Gary starts to remove the covers
from the windows, exposing everyone to whatever it is outside, and in a
scuffle he's overcome, but of all our heroes only Malorie, Tom and the two
newborns survive. But left to their own devices rather than relying on the
strength of a group, the future's less than certain ... Now I
pretty much love the premise of Bird Box, and I love that very
little is actually explained away, and the actual threat is never shown,
just hinted at. Also, director Susanne Bier does a good job bringing the
unnamable threat and the feeling of unease to the screen - but I'm sorry
to say that the film falls a little bit flat when it comes to writing:
Most of the characters are really just paper cutouts - the cynic, the
helpless pregnant woman, the righteous black man, the coward, and so on -,
with Malorie at the center being not even allowed a character arc - she's
always right and righteous, always badass and capable, even when giving
birth -, and the situation these characters run in, are pretty standard
horror fare, which is especially disappointing given the great promise.
Now of course, the film's still alright genre fare, just nowhere near what
it could have been with better writing.
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