Broken Bird

No pun intended - the movie is quite well done. But what really elevates it is the central performance - good may not be the right choice of word to use ... entirely. But she really is great - not sure if I would go as far as one of the Frighfest organizers went and call for her performance to win a BAFTA for sure ... but it could have been a contender if horror movies were respected more.

All that said, the movie is not without flaws. Some choices and performances do feel weird and weak to say the least. But if you suspend your disbelief and go with the flow ... it will reward ... well the movie! Very well shot - and the story is crazy enough too .... if you dig stuff like that ... you have to be a bit off to not be too offended watching some of the stuff you are getting served ...

The opening shot of Broken Bird is of a dead bird, but at its core, this is a movie about broken people and how they cope with death and loss. In her feature film directorial debut, Joanne Mitchell presents us with a sensitive, dark, and sometimes quirky tale of a woman who has a special relationship with death.

The story is told through the sometimes unreliable eyes of Sybil Chamberlain (Rebecca Calder), a romantic soul who writes poetry and spends her evenings awkwardly presenting them at a local spoken-word club. She likes to pick up roadkill for her taxidermy hobby. Sybil was broken as a child when she survived an auto crash that killed the rest of her family and now the only people she relates to are dead people. They alleviate her crippling loneliness.

So it's only natural that Sybil works as an assistant mortician. She has just taken on a job working for the kindly Mr. Thomas (James Fleet), a mortician who is coping with the recent death of his wife in his own peculiar manner.

Emma (Sacharissa Claxton) is a London police investigator who has lost her son, is estranged from her husband, and is now on the verge of losing her job. Her life is consumed by trauma and guilt which she is treating with alcohol and pills.

Broken Bird holds its cards close to its chest, slowly revealing information on a need-to-know basis. The film guides us into the minds of both Sybil and Emma through the use of a somber color palette and a sensitive musical score. Joanne Mitchell has crafted an artistically restrained film that feels disjointed at first, demanding close attention, but in the final act, the connections between these characters pays off big in an unexpectedly dark and somewhat gothic way.

While tragedy and sadness abound in Broken Bird, it's offset by the wild imaginations of Sybil, our unreliable guide. There is a very funny scene involving a widow viewing the body of her good-for-nothing husband that had me laughing out loud because it was so ludicrous and outrageous. I was a little disappointed when it was revealed to just be Sybil's fantasy, but it was necessary to give us a glimpse into her tormented mind and to question every action she takes.

Emma, on the other hand, keeps the story grounded. She's clearly been a competent cop for years but has reached her breaking point. It's painful watching her drunk-call her ex husband in a desperate plea to somehow reverse time to before they lost their son. She suggests that perhaps the boy's just been hiding this whole time. She is haunted by the minutes leading up to the death of her son, wanting just one chance to live that day again, except to be there when it counted. Sacharissa Claxton's performance is a poignant and beautifully crafted portrayal of a parent experiencing not just loss of a child, but a loss with a horrific twist that shocked me when it was revealed.

Although Sybil is obsessed with dead things and very much in the perfect profession, Rebecca Calder plays the part with a certain glee and goofiness that provides a bit of comic relief, even if it is just in her head. This is a fascinating, nuanced character who is full of demented surprises right up until the final scene. She may be dangerous and demented, but I also kind of like her!

It's interesting to note the five stages of grief loosely depicted in Broken Bird. Mr. Thomas, the mortician, has adapted to his loss through a sort of permanent (if ghoulish) denial. The aforementioned widow is clearly stuck in the anger stage. Emma is bargaining (albeit drunkenly) with the universe for the return of her son, but is ultimately in the depression stage.

Sybil has reached an unhealthy form of acceptance. She has allowed her pain to build up since childhood and fills her loneliness with creativity: poetry and taxidermy. They are her escapes from reality, but eventually imagination isn't enough. Her desires must be satisfied in a world in which she is emotionally ill-equipped. She equates happiness and pleasure with death.

Broken Bird is an outstanding movie and one of my favorite films of 2024. It's gloomy, dark and depressing, beautifully shot with solid performances. There is a nice amount of practical gore effects (I mean, it's in a mortuary), and some horrific scenes of horror, especially toward the end. I'm really forward to seeing whatever Joanne Mitchell directs next.

I just wasted almost 2 hours watching this train wreck. It made no sense and there wasn't a likeable character in the entire movie. It seemed like a lot of jumbled ideas that didn't go anywhere.

In the end it really didn't come together or justify all the insanity that came before it. The acting was sub par and the "story" was extremely weak.

The main character was cruel and some scenes were just there to shock and didn't advance the plot in any meaningful way.

Not sure how to categorize this movie. It wasn't horror or suspenseful. Caught myself nodding off many times waiting for SOMETHING to happen. Booooooooo.

Sybil is an eccentric oddity, working in a job at a mortuary that seems to suit her persona. She has an encounter with a handsome young man, when visiting a museum, which could be the start of a new chapter in her lonely life.

The movie has a slow and disjointed start but as the pieces in the puzzle slowly start to bind together, the film intensifies and starts to dish out some pretty shocking content and solid plot twists.

It's a strong directorial debut for Joanne Mitchell, who I'd only ever seen as an actress before, in the gritty thriller "Bait", so hats of to her for a job well done.

Broken Bird is not flawless. It meanders a bit at the start but the film is carried very well by actress Rebecca Calder, who can't be faulted.

It's a witty, dark movie that is not quite a horror film but had enough unpleasantness in some scenes to really make me squirm.

This is a film I got see via screener thanks to Keir from Strike Media. It looks like this played at FrightFest over in the United Kingdom where I'm guessing it made its premiere. I'll be honest, outside of the title, the information that I shared here and then confirming it was horror, I came into seeing this blind.

Synopsis: Sybil (Rebecca Calder) works as an undertaker. It's a lonely job, with a few perks so she takes solace where she can.

We start this with a little girl finding a dead bird on the ground. She picks it up, puts it on her desk and then we see her preparing it. I figured she was doing a rough form of taxidermy. It seems that this girl grows up to be Sybil Chamberlain. We see her as an adult while driving. She hits an animal, then backs over it. She goes out for us to see it was a fox. We then see her cover it in a blanket and pick it up. She makes the comment that she's going to be late. We see that she recites poetry at an open mic night.

Another character we meet runs a local mortuary, Mr. Thomas (James Fleet). He meets Sybil who is looking for work and he hires her. She inquires about a locked room that he has. He informs her not to worry about it, but it does have refrigeration.

We then meet a police officer who is struggling named Helen (Jessica Yemi). She is put on leave as there seemed to be a tragic event in her life that she hasn't recovered from. Her boss knows she's drinking on the job and he cannot allow it. What we see is that this involved her son. There was an incident where she scolded him for knocking over milk. That is just the start of her guilt.

Then the last character we meet is Mark (Jay Taylor). He is seeing Tina (Jelena Moore). Sybil meets him at a museum where we see that she daydreams about different things. It's love at first sight for her. That gets dashed when she realizes he has a girlfriend. Things take a dark turn when he suffers an accident. All these characters get tangled together and the deeper we get into the truth, the stranger things become.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this was a hard film to settle into. I'll be honest, part of it is that this is from the United Kingdom and I didn't have subtitles. The accents were a bit difficult, but I did adjust. This sucked me in with the story and as things got revealed, it kept me guessing until the end. I will credit it for that. The last thing I'll include here is that this feels like a dark variation on something like Amélie.

Now that I've set that up, what works for me is that we get a solid group of characters that we're following. Not only that, but this also gives you parts of their character or introduces a story element, then it shifts to someone else. I picked up early on that they were going to all connected, not necessarily in ways you'd expect. Seeing how they fit together is great and like I said, it goes into dark places. I did want to commend the editing here. It does take time to settle in, but once it does. I recommend going along for the ride.

I'll also then say that this is a character study of the players involved. Something else to give credit to is that not everyone is as important as it sets up in the beginning. That wasn't something that I was expecting to be honest. To start breaking down characters, first is Sybil. She seems mousey in the beginning. The more we see her, the more we see that she's broken. Her family died in an accident when she was young. She is obsessed with death. She also just wants her happy ending. There are different things that break her façade and we also see she does depraved things. Credit to Calder for her performance.

We then see her interactions with Mr. Thomas, who hires her. He sees and finds her to be a great worker, to the point that due to his age, he's considering promoting her already. This is positive. There are allusions to a dark secret he's harboring and it had me guessing until right before it was revealed. Good on the movie there. Fleet was good in his portrayal there. We also develop more of the Sybil character through Mark and Tina. It is there that we see how deep her psychosis goes. Both Taylor and Moore were also good in their roles. There's also a great reveal with Tina and a guy Sybil sees her with. That adds to the gut punch.

Then the last character to bring up here is Helen. We know that she's struggling with drinking. It feels like the movie doesn't want us to like her. She does things that make me cringe. The more we learn about this, the more we see that what she's struggling with is something that most everyone would be. Her connection to Sybil was also interesting. This leads to the climax and resolution as well. I'll also say that Yemi was good in her portrayal as well.

I'll say here that the rest of the cast was solid for what was needed in support. The best thing is seeing people in the delusions that Sybil lives in. I'll then just finish out with filmmaking. I thought this was well-made. The cinematography and framing of shots were good. What is great here is how Sybil's fantasies seem happy where the world she lives in is drabber. That's a good touch, especially at the climax. The limited effects that we got were good as well. I'll also say that the soundtrack suited what was needed.

In conclusion, this was a film that once I settled into where the story was taking me, I was there for it. It reminds me of a dark variation on Amélie. This is a character study and seeing how this group are intertwined. The acting is good across the board. I thought how this was crafted was solid with the filmmaking aspects. The cinematography and framing lead the way there. My biggest issue was just needing subtitles as I think I missed things. If what I said sounds good, I'd recommend giving this a watch.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.