Bluebird

I really love these docu-style films. Having missed the opening credits (I found it while zapping), I thought for the first 5 minutes it was a documentary. So cool. Also, with the very skillful and appropriate underacting, it was hard to tell what this was at first. A German children's series? A docu on living with disability in the family? Ah, Dutch drama! Rotteveel is an outstanding actress, with the typical looks of the runway model: Looks ordinary, almost plain at first glance, but is stunning upon closer examination. Her acting is of the deceptive natural kind and it fitted in well with the direction and camera work, beautiful, those wide shots.

I didn't get the choice of music, though. Choosing the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song 'Otherside' during a sad moment is understandable, ("A candidate for my soul mate bled" "Slit my throat, it's all I ever" ), but R.E.M.s 'Losing my religion' during the end? And what about Michel Fugains 'Un beau roman' when her stepbrother is going to school? What is the connection between that and a nostalgic summer romance song? Unfathomable.

Perhaps it was just my major penchant for European coming-of-age stories, but I was glad that at the pivotal third weekend at this year's SIFF I happened to come across the Dutch charmer "Bluebird", an affecting, agreeably minimalist chronicle of one girl's crucial step from childhood to adolescence, in a film skillful enough to distinguish genuine sweetness from saccharine condescension, thankfully sticking throughout to the former.

In "Bluebird", Merel (Elske Rotteveel) might just be the most charming 12-year-old in her city-wide junior high school, and yet she's ostensibly the school's most ambitious pariah. With few friends despite an ample dose of after-school activities, she's an ever zealous, extremely bright student whose naturally superlative work is often, at least to the teachers, inconspicuous. She's on the diving squad, sings in the class musical and consistently gets high marks in school, but yet it seems perhaps too natural for anyone to notice, a physical and emotional overload with no room for exultation.

Along with her busy schoolwork, she also has to embody an almost mother-infant relationship with her physically and mentally disabled younger brother, who's facing another possible stint at institutionalism.

Given, with little time to even stop and catch her breath and less time to be a kid, it's remarkable she still ends up being exuberantly individualistic, taking whatever time she has left to learn and discover something new, and it's this non-conformist and resourcefully intellectual sense of self that puts her at odds with the more vacuous, angrier "cool kids" in her class.

Whether it be her innocently but repeatedly upstaging them in practically every class, her equally graceful ignorance of their tauntingly unctuous invitations or her modest, tomboyish apparel, she becomes the center of their unreasonably cruel string of pranks and lunch-hour hazing. They verge from the more emotionally harming (sarcastic physical mockery and some rather vile name-calling) to the more violent intrusions of personal safety (locking her in the bathroom and eviscerating her treasured bike), all of which strike the earnest, usually attentive school officials and Merel's parents as alarmingly unforeseen.

In turns out that her only sense of comfort is in an English-speaking train-stop acquaintance, whose perpetual smile earns her trust, but it's ultimately his soft-spoken wisdom and the universal lessons that casually nurture her through their brief but enriching encounters. A lesser director might have him blanket a nefarious agenda, but he is ultimately Merel's eye of the hurricane, one to bolster both her self-esteem as well as her mental ascension from a precarious childhood mind to a woman with a firm grasp of herself and the people around her (as well as giving her the film's title nickname)

Ultimately, Merel (and the movie) comes to her character's pivotal crossroad, if she succumbs to peer pressure and compromises her individuality, or if she rejects the school's inanely shallow bullies and strives to draw friends who respect her special, richly defined persona.

"Bluebird" is, inevitably, a very conventional movie (it was previously an after-school special in the Netherlands before going to the big screen), but it's neither a stale or cynical one, just resoundingly pure. It squarely focuses on Merel's point-of-view (she's in every scene), and while it gives the movie perhaps a lop-sided feel when it deals with her interactions with the school bullies (they remain malevolent, and often indistinguishable; perhaps a true statement on the nature of bullying itself, but without any of their viewpoints, this particular aspect of "Bluebird" has a noticeable lack of dimension), it doesn't damper a movie still rich with keen, non-condescending insight on the often anxious and terrifying time of moving from the innocence of childhood to the self-defining responsibility of being a young adult.

And it's all superbly carried by the young Rotteveel, who here radiates a seamlessly endearing mix of a precocious sense of original taste and dependability as well as a youthfully sensitive vulnerability, especially when her tribulations, during and corresponding to the harsher interpersonal situations, can't be easily handled. Most movies would only dare to focus on one aspect to swiftly move the story along, but here Rotteveel deftly adds layers to her beleaguered but exceptional character, peeling each one to show her character's burgeoning maturity with a natural, impressive ease. Even with all the trials and hardships that befall upon Merel, Rotteveel's instincts, just like the simple but lovingly resonant charms of "Bluebird", are resiliently sound.

A 12 year old girl got to be 'picked' (bullied) on at school from just on moment on the other. At home she doesn't tell here parents, and as the situation get worse and worse, she gets quieter all the time. She has an (adopted) younger disabled brother and the have an excellent 'relationship'. She is with him all the time. When stuff get worse, it start effecting the 'bond' with here brother.

I find the 'play' between the girl and her disabled brother real good, and the atmosphere from the school klas picking on her, real enough to be true. (in NL anyway.) Good movie, i wasn't bored for one moment.

"Bluebird" is an extremely well-crafted Dutch movie which, though originally produced as a children's film, would be enjoyed by audience of any age. It features a 12-year-old schoolgirl, Merel (meaning 'blackbird'), who is a good student, a good swimmer, a caring older sister for her handicapped young brother and an avid reader of classic English novels. One day, suddenly, she found out that she's being bullied and later, physically beaten by certain classmates of her. But she didn't somehow complain or inform about this to her teacher or her parents. But her private life and her nature began to change.

From my description of Merel's character earlier, it may seem that she's a perfect child. But she's not. She does not have any good friends except a kindly man she met at the train. She is basically introvert. But she's not at all glum or mentally precocious. She is happy when she really likes it, at other times she's just silent. In this very difficult role in my opinion, debutant Elske Rottevéel gives a really outstanding performance. The camera is on her in practically every scene, showing her every emotion. And she never seemed uncomfortable or weak in her role. The occasional bits of Merel's subtle and controlled expressions of happiness are nicely portrayed by Rottevéel. I safely write that hers is one of the top five performances I've seen by a child actor. And mind you, she's not some 16-year-old playing 12.

The film ends with a quite predictable ending, which is good because I wouldn't like major plot twists in this kind of films. The filmmakers should be thanked once again for presenting us such a simple example where one doesn't need to exaggerate in any way to make a good film. And thanks to the film authorities of Netherlands to select this film to compete for the Academy Awards nomination, otherwise audiences like us from another continent wouldn't come to know about it.

Merel is the "perfect" child - the mother's good daughter who lovingly cares for her disabled younger brother; an ideal student from the teacher's perspective, she knows all the answers. This last trait leads to her being bullied at school. The acting is very good.

The scenes are good enough to serve as talking points, but the bullying may be too intense for many kids experiencing such abuse.

The film also has it's limits. The mother is too accepting of Merel's explanation that her skateboard fell into a canal (thrown there by her peers) and the resolution at the end - not to be mentioned as a spoiler - is simply too simplistic and not at all realistic.