Birds of America

You might be getting a little tired of movies about dysfunctional families. I know I am. I think I've seen at least three at Sundance this year. But Birds of America manages to break the mold and feel fresh and alive from the outset, delivering a warm, funny, zany, tender and compassionate film that left the audience smiling and satisfied.

Morrie (Matthew Perry) is an uptight university professor anxiously seeking tenure, which requires the approval of his department head, who lives next door. Morrie and his wife Betty (Lauren Graham—Gilmore Girls) live in a house he inherited at 18 years old after his mother died and his father committed suicide. As a result, Morrie raised his brother Jay (Ben Foster) and sister Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin), both of which grew into their problems. Ida is substance-abusing and promiscuous, and Jay a deeply gentle and sensitive soul whose actions are almost completely unfettered by advanced thought. They reunite in the family home when Jay gets run over by a car (he was laying in the road) and Morrie, who still feels more parent than brother, asks him to move in for a while. Without asking permission, Jay invites Ida to join them, stressing Morrie and Betty's relationship and jeopardizing his career with their outrageous behavior.

Matthew Perry is surprisingly good in his deadpan portrayal of an overwrought brother who cares deeply for his siblings, often at his own expense. Goodwin is a pleasure as well, as the addictive personality with the carefree spirit. But Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) is great, and despite having such a naturally funny role, manages to never play Jay for laughs, creating an endearing and memorable character. Growing up without parents, these three have formed an unbreakable bond, with unconditional love and acceptance, and a tenderness and compassion unlike any I can remember in movies. Elyse Friedman has crafted a remarkable script, and Sundance veteran director Craig Lucas (Secret Lives of Dentists, The Dying Gaul) brings it to life with a funny but light-hearted and gentle touch.

I know a nine is going to seem high. But after a slow start, this movie begins to grab at you. There are moments you feel the boundaries of realism have been touched upon, but somehow it all meshes together and becomes the heartfelt story it's meant to be.

At times, you might suspect the actors were learning improvisational skills on the job, as they most definitely improved scene after scene.

Give this movie the half hour investment of boredom you might endure, and you'll be grateful for the half hour you "suffered" through.

Matthew Perry hasn't had the best of luck in reviews of his movies. I think this movie should certainly help to redeem any sagging career thoughts swirling is his head.

BIRDS OF America is not a cinematic version of Lorrie Moore's best selling collection of short stories by the same name. This little tale of a dysfunctional family was written by Elyse Friedman, a Canadian novelist and screenwriter (Then Again, Long Short Story, Waking Beauty) whose works are summed up by the author: "If I had to sum up my characters in one word, I'd say 'outsiders.' There's not one particular source from where I get my inspiration. It comes from different places. I get it from life, and ideas pop into my head. I file them away and sooner or later it's time to deal with them, whether in screenplay, book, or poem or whatever it happens to be." Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul) joins Friedman in bringing this strange little story about outsiders and insiders, all living together under one bizarre roof.

Morrie (Matthew Perry) is the older brother who raised his free-spirited siblings Jay (Ben Foster) and Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) after the death of their parents. Their lives have gone in different directions: Morrie is a professor in line for tenure that happens to be at the mercy of his fellow academician Paul (Gary Wilmes) who lives next door to Morrie and his sturdy but 'it's time to start a family' wife Betty (Lauren Graham). Paul and his obsessive compulsive gardening wife-new-mother Laura (Hilary Swank) do all the right things, a trait Morrie and Betty try to emulate to assure Morrie's getting tenured, a move that will assure Betty that motherhood can be approached.

Into this strained atmosphere drops Jay recovering from an accident (he lay on the freeway and was hit but not killed). Alone (he is married to a young girl Gillian (Zoë Kravitz) but does not share this information at first) Jay moves into Morrie's attic and continues his strange life pattern, imposing his Vegan style on the family and eventually inviting his equally looney sister Ida to move in, too: Ida takes the basement. The two siblings proceed to cause minor crises and dilemmas for Morrie, more or less resulting in Morrie's being alienated from his 'important' neighbors. How Morrie and Betty adjust to their new found way of life and its consequences provides an ending to the story.

The film is slight and begs indulgence in some of the sidebars that are less than contributing to the film as a whole, but the cast is very good: Ben Foster and Ginnifer Goodwin continue to impress as they polish their acting skills. The story is a little on the crazy side, but it does provide another way of viewing a dysfunctional family.

Grady Harp

"Birds of America" is a quiet independent film that managed to get big names to star in it. I'm not sure what drew Matthew Perry, Lauren Graham, Ginnifer Goodwin, and (last but definitely not least) two-time Academy Award Winner Hillary Swank to star in this film, because the story went from taking plots and characters similar to movies I've seen before, to going in weird and confusing directions that make you go "huh?". Such directions are aided by random subplots.

Matthew Perry plays Morrie, a college professor who had inherited his parents' house after his father fell out a window and his mother died from cancer. The problem was, he was just completing high school when it happened, and he still had two younger siblings to take care of. Those siblings grow up to be Jay (Ben Foster) a borderline psychotic who likes laying his head on concrete waiting for cars to come by, and Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin), a promiscuous party girl who is a little less crazy than her brother, but still hard to handle.

The movie doesn't bother to even begin to explain how they got this way. All we know is that Morrie is still living in that house, is married to Betty (Lauren Graham, playing yet another distraught housewife), and (random subplot alert) has not had a bowel movement in a few months. When this point is revealed, the next scene you see is Perry sitting on a toilet seat with a Microsoft laptop in front of him and a MacBook on his left side. When seeing this scene, I thought to myself, "Why, movie, why?". It's a good thing Morrie isn't a germaphobe.

Things get messy when Jay and Ida have nowhere to go, move into the old house, and continue to test both Morrie and Betty's patience. Morrie can't just dump them on the street because, I guess, they're family. However, the character of Jay, to me, seemed to be better off in a mental institution given his suicidal tendencies. Why that option never occurred to Matthew Perry's character at any point in this film is beyond me. Goodwin was good in her role as a misfit, and the film could have easily just kept her. It's not that Ben Foster didn't do a good job in his role. He did. Jay just seemed too heavy a character for this movie to handle, and could have been utilized better in another movie.

It also surprises me that Hillary Swank took on such a thankless role as the suburban débutante next door to Morrie and Betty who happens to be married to Morrie's boss, Paul (Gary Wilmes). Swank turns in a one-dimensional performance here that could really have been played by anyone. In fact, for some reason, her character reminded me of a less over- the-top Babs ("That boy is a P-I-G Pig!") from "Animal House" (1978). Since she's not only a two-time Oscar winner, but an A-lister at that, it surprises me that she played a role this small. They could have gotten a no-name actress, and it would have cost a lot less.

This movie suffers greatest from being a hodgepodge of subplots, all of which don't tie together well or resolve originally. In fact, the title of the movie, "Birds of America", comes from a first edition book Morrie also inherited from his father. In the beginning of the film, it's revealed that Jay ripped it to shreds for reasons the movie never explains. Is the book referred to again? Not until the closing credits, where you see L.L. Bean-esque pictures of birds from this aforementioned book. These credits only remind you that the movie could have made a metaphor that made sense using this book, but didn't even try to do so.

And speaking of useless subplots with shifty solutions, remember the bowel trouble Morrie has? If you've seen "Me, Myself, and Irene" (2000), you can probably guess how it's going to resolve itself. This movie tried, but the plot felt messy, unrealistic, and forgettable at the same time. I can't give it a stronger recommendation.

Though the title is derived from Audubon's priceless book and there are several references within the film corresponding to the title, it also serves as a metaphor. The film centres around a dysfunctional family and each member is like a bird. Morrie (Matthew Perry) is a bird who's lived in a cage for so long that he's finding it difficult to break free. His wife Bettie is like a bird who desperately wants to create a nest and nurture children. His brother Jay is a gentle young bird who keeps flying. And, similarly, his sister too keeps flying, only that she's flying away from having to deal with her problems.

While movies about dysfunctional families are becoming redundant these days (though they haven't tired me), 'Birds Of America' feels refreshing. It's a funny, at times hilariously outrageous, heartwarming, whimsical, poetic and humane little film. While these siblings, who have grown up without stable parents, have their own problems, their unconditional love for one another is strong and genuine it is sensitively demonstrated by the actors with compassion. They do feel like a real family.

Friedman's writing is superb as the dialogues are authentic, symbolic and humorous and the poetry of the story comes across very well. The characters are very real with a gentle touch of humour. Lucas's direction is equally good as he stays focused on the main story, telling it with sincerity and clarity. In addition, Yaron Orbach's playful cinematography and Ahrin Mishan's whimsical score are excellent and they beautifully enhance the mood. Eric Kissack's editing is crisp. It is a very short film but it's rounded up well.

The performances are outstanding. It was great to see Matthew Perry in a serious role (with a comic touch). He just proves what a versatile actor he is and his effective portrayal comes across as very genuine. Lauren Graham is just as fantastic as the desperate housewife desperate to have kids with the husband she loves. Ben Foster is brilliantly restrained and very likable. He does not have to rely on overt gimmicks to draw laughter. Ginnifer Goodwin too is excellent as the promiscuous, carefree and addictive sister Ida. Hilary Swank springs a pleasant surprise as the pompous 'perfect' neighbour. It's a role that any star of her caliber would turn down without second thought and it's not a role that one would expect an accomplished actress to play but Swank does a fine job nonetheless and it was great to see her as part of an already magnificent cast.

It's a light hearted film and it's basically about lightening up and not to take every single thing in life so seriously but at the same time to respect other's boundaries. To quote a friend, 'it's about the invisible boundaries of social norms: both breaking and respecting them and it's about the importance of loving and respecting people who care for you (family and real friends) versus sucking up to others only because they might give you a promotion or a 'better' social status'.