Henrietta Bulkowski

I could not love this more - incredible animation and a reminder that everyone has dreams and that they can be fulfilled in surprising ways.

Unfortunately I sat all the way through this mess of a film. You can't cover up the holes in the story with nice animation, and it just goes to show, don't judge a book, or film, by its pretty cover.

This is the story of a Henrietta Bulkowski, a young woman with kyphosis, who wants to become a pilot. It is set in what appears to be the 1930's in what seems to be Canada. Henrietta (Christina Hendricks) has help from a male friend, Danny Wilcox (Chris Cooper) in her attempt to accomplish her dream. The story starts out as a tale about a young woman bravely trying to deal with the hand that life dealt her, then the story changes. It really changes! The movie suddenly and shockingly becomes a different film. The short is bipolar! The movie is great to look at, obviously a good sum of money was spent here. Writer/director Rachel Johnson is gifted and "Henrietta Bulkowski" is worth seeing, but prepare to be startled.

She wanted to look down on the world from the sky. However, she couldn't legally become an airplane pilot because of her disability. But did that mean she couldn't be a passenger? Why couldn't she just buy a plane ticket and look out the window? Or ride on a hot air balloon? Or helicopter? It sounds silly but I could not get past this.

Visually beautiful though, especially that landfill, and the plane, and the little town she built below it.

This movie is strangely awkward. The animation is clearly impressive but it feels very uncomfortable in an unexplainable way. I kind of wish it was feature length so you'd have time to settle in.