Catherine Called Birdy

Birdy's a young girl, almost a woman, a bit naïve of all the world in which she's living, but she's got to grow up quick, a new clock's primed and starts to tick, she now has value and a modesty for taking. So arrangements are prepared to sell her off, it makes her quite annoyed, it makes her scoff, so she wriggles and she squirms, to avert taking new terms, prevent her moving to a strangers dirty trough. But her father's most insistent she'll soon pack, for disobeying he metes out several hand whacks, potential suitors are arranged, so she presents as quite deranged, then Shaggy Beard, decides he'd like to have a crack. You're just pleased this is a tale set in the past, a time of yore, so long ago, a long time passed, well you'd like to think that's true, but you know, and I know too, that it all depends upon the cards that you've been caste.

Great acting, great dialogue, not quite as laugh out loud funny as I'd hoped it would be but enjoyable nonetheless - to a point, which it makes very well. There's a very good film called 'What Will People Say' that's worth tracking down if you have the time.

For some reason this reminded me of a long ago ill-fated TV show, "When Things Were Rotten." It was a Mel Brooks production so it had slapstick and plenty of transplanted vibes from the current era into a Robin Hood scenario, I've not read the YA novel that Lena Durham based this on, I'm guessing that was mostly a genteel take on not-so-gentle girls fighting back against the chattel calls of the day.

This film has a TV show kind of flair, cameos and quick quip humor. And it has slaptick/fartjoke humor, but it's all in good fun. So things are Mirthful, and yes things are Inclusive, and that shouldn't prevent one from enjoying the sweet silliness.

The film is by and large safe, although the birthing techniques then were not, and that was a bit of barrier for my wife, along with some of the bawdy and the bile (or other bodily fluids).

Andrew Scott is really really good from Sherlock to Fleabag to one of the more enjoyable takes here as a sitcom-style Dad.

Seems like the film was a lark to work on, and a lark to enjoy. Maybe listen with headphones, to catch the dialog zips and zings best, especially if your ears are like mine and bit too Amurrican. A pox upon me I guess, but just a small pox.

How on Earth is this film currently rated 5.9? I'm giving it a ten in the hopes of averting the universe from tilting sideways with injustice. The writing is sharp, funny, often quietly potent. The cast is perfect and the cinematography, set and costume design excellent. Is the low rating because the film is anachronistic? Did some people think this was an historical reenactment? Obviously it's not because the casting is colour-blind, because that would be monumentally stupid. Bella Ramsey knocks every line, scowl, and flounce out of the park. A lovely little film, and here's hoping Bella Ramsey, already one of the very best actors of her generation, goes on to have a long, meandering and celebrated career.

8/10 - Most films set in medieval times have a "brown" tinge to them. This film however is colourful and bright - and that's not even my favourite thing about it. I think think this is one of the best things Lena Dunham has ever done, I always liked "Girls" but was never part of the frenzy, more a casual viewer. But this film is really special, Bella Ramsey is so talented as is the whole cast. It also does the rare thing of being a young adult story that teens and tweens can watch with their parents. There's nothing in there that's really inappropriate or gratuitous. I highly recommend this film!

"I am dying, it is plain to see." Catherine (Bella Ramsey)

Although that is the cry of 14-year-old medieval English Catherine greeting her first period, it is the cry of all young girls meeting womanhood, a blend of suffering and mystery and finally joy should it mean a child can be in the future. Writer/director Lena Dunham has crafted a rollicking YA story, set in 1290, of a feisty young girl who could fight amd survive in any century where independence and equality are her motivations.

Although Catherine Called Birdy is derived from Karen Cushman's novel, it is a universally charming oft-told tale of a modestly good-looking rebel who fights the medieval tradition of marrying off young females to improve the family lot through money and title. The egregious gender-role motif is prevalent but with Dunham's light touch.

Catherine fights her indolent yet likeable dad, Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott, so effective he was as Moriarty in Sherlock), when he attempts to remedy his flagrant abuse of their fortune by marrying her off. Catherine shouts, "Your villagers are allowed to marry where they will, but your daughter is sold like a cheese for your profit."

Catherine's cheeky voiceover narration (evocative of Heath Ledger's A Knight's Tale and Pippi Longstocking) from a diary she keeps for her monk brother is an endearing feature of this, dare I call it, romcom: About kissing, she opines, "Might it not be as vile as we once thought?" Acknowledging being saved from a marriage to old "Shaggy Beard," she exclaims, "My gratitude does not mean I have lost my fight." A quick-witted fighter she is.

Her teen-age rebellion echoes down the centuries, as true today as it was almost a millennia ago. For adults, Catherine Called Birdy is a romp in witty language and ancient mores, recreated with loving good cheer from a spirited woman much of our time, Lena Dunham.