Customer Reviews

Birds of America

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Essentially this dysfunctional film implodes on itself in numerous ways, so much so that any description of the plot or otherwise would just be boring. The only two reasons to see this would be to watch the range that Ben Foster and Ginnifer Goodwin have. I liked Foster in 3:10 to Yuma and I think this role helped show his variety, as with Goodwin.

This is not a film to grab if you think Hillary Swank, Perry or Graham do anything special. Swank has 5 scenes, Perry spends half the film on a toilet (toilet humor does not work for me anymore) and Graham just seemed to miss it. Watching Perry scoop dog crap up well over ten times didn't work for me either. I like the films from First Look, but this one doesn't meet the grade of competency, except for Foster building a solid foundation - and when I think about it he actually had more screen time than anyone, so maybe they should change the cover art to him.

Spanning 1 hour at 20 minutes this movie feels much longer and not necessarily in a pleasant way. Although some of the subjects and explorations this movie takes are genuine and interesting, there's too much of the oddity in here to be truly appreciated. This is not the best dysfunctional family drama out there and, by the end of the film, nor do we really care about whether it is.

I love Matthew Perry, but he needs someone to help him pick better films. I like films about dysfunctional families, but this movie was a sub-par example of the genre. This movie had the elements of a promising film but the content of the scenes was not clever, humorous, or perceptive enough. (Though there is one scene that sticks in my memory involving smoking marijuana that I thought was authentic/original/cool.)

Instead of this, if you haven't seen it, see The Safety of Objects, a film that my subconscious keeps returning to months after seeing it.

I just watched again this movie and I'm surprised about how much I like it and how many messages are passed between the lines. There are little touches here and there that make this movie not explicitly didactic (which usually happens nowadays, and is so hideous), allowing our personal questions to rise. Like, when in the end the "break all the rules outsider guy" realizes even that motto can imprison life experiences and bending that, although a paradox, can make room to other nice moments shared.
The director and the actors could have easily overdone it and blown the recipe. Instead, they give believable performances with true soul.
Who does not have a beloved one who's kookoo?

Birds of America tries to be amusing and unusual but doesn't truly make it. I'd recommend watching this for some good performances by Matthew Perry, Ben Foster, Ginnifer Goodwin and Lauren Graham. Hilary Swank's talent is largely wasted on a rather small role and the toilet humor (with Perry's character literally spending huge amounts of time sitting on the toilet) didn't work too well for me, either. However, the movie does flow along and the cinematography impressed me. The script is just average but then again the musical score wasn't all that bad.

Physics teacher Morrie Tanager (Matthew Perry) yearns for tenure; and after seven years of teaching he is finally eligible for it--as long as his next door neighbor and boss/quasi -friend Paul (Gary Wilmes) gives Morrie political support. Trouble is, Morrie and his wife Betty (Lauren Graham) can't stand snooty Paul and his wife Laura (Hilary Swank); but they lead a very straight laced life merely to get in good with Paul and Laura. Worse trouble for Morrie comes when he is chronically constipated (for months, he says?) and his nutty brother Jay (Ben Foster) and his rather loose sister and also nutty sister Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) descend upon their household just as Morrie is finally up for tenure. This, of course, drives Morrie and Betty crazy; they are also embarrassed and ashamed of Jay and Ida whenever Paul and Laura see them. Moreover, Morrie and Betty fight over whether they should start trying to have a baby and Morrie is the polar opposite of Jay and Ida.

There's still more where this came from; and there are a few plot twists that will surprise you. The movie itself is nothing truly special; but it is light entertainment and that does have its value. I recommend this film for fans of the actors in it; and people who like quirky comedies might consider this--although I would walk and not run to get it. It's average.

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, March 11

In truth, I'm no big fan of Matthew Perry. I've followed his career through many failed series prior to "Friends" and used to genuinely like him. He has talent, but his filmed persona rarely varies and I tire of seeing the same character in all his work. To his credit, Perry does attempt the straight man role in the quirk filled "Birds of America" and his downplaying is admirable--but, in the end, it is the more eccentric characters that enliven this hit-or-miss family dramedy by Craig Lucas. Lucas, a writer of some import (most notably in theater as well as "Longtime Companion"), here adapts an interesting, if uneven, screenplay by Elyse Friedman. In addition to Perry, some rather big names were attached to the film and that's what drew my interest in this piece. I'd never even heard of this movie but with Ben Foster, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lauren Graham and Hilary Swank on board--it's a pretty impressive cast.

Perry plays a discontent teacher trying hard to please everyone in his life. Repressing his real feelings, he has raised his troublesome siblings (Foster and Goodwin) since his parents' death and is still dealing with their deviant behavior into adulthood. He is also struggling to keep things on an even keel at work where tenure is up for grabs, and his supportive wife (Graham) is looking to start a family sometime soon. An impromptu reunion is assembled when Foster is involved in an accident. Foster is disconnected, uncommunicative, possibly disturbed, and harboring plenty of secrets. Goodwin fares slightly better--she's only promiscuous, a compulsive liar, and running from any real adult responsibility. In the grand scheme of things, Perry's bowel movements seem like comparatively normal problems! There's a lot of apparent psychological damage in this clan, but nothing that a little love and understanding can't fix.

My main issue with "Birds of America" is that it's simply trying too hard. Aspects of the film are really quite good. Individually, both Foster and Goodwin deliver very nice performances. But the realness of their turmoil is undermined by a falseness in the film's plotting and uneven tone. The best sequences are shared by the three siblings. The worst have to do with Perry's boss and neighbor with Swank playing his cartoonish wife. With elements of ridiculous slapstick interspersed with heartfelt emotion, the movie never really gelled into a cohesive end product. Worth a look for the cast, the film might have been great--but, for me, it misses the mark with too much eccentricity detracting from the more successful moments of actual believability. KGHarris, 2/11.

I really liked this movie it shows how we deal with diverse families who have real issues and how siblings get along with each other when they face depression and mental health!

A quirky family trying to hang onto their sanity struggles to be there for one another, even as they are each emotionally falling apart. Mathew Perry stars as the sibling that had to grow up too fast after his dad has an 'accident' (or did he?) and his mother dies, leaving him to care for his younger siblings at the age of eighteen. His early struggles leave him rigid and fearful of change, or standing up for himself. When his strange sister and unbalanced brother come to stay with him his control over his life unravels so far that he may never be able to pull it together again. A look at unique and bizarre characters in this story of a family flailing along, trying to hold their heads above water and nearly taking each other under in the process.

Chrissy K. McVay - Author

The title is the best thing about this stinker. Sounds like a new age novelist dispensing second rate wisdom. And what we get is third rate wisdom. Poor Matthew Perry must raise his young siblings after dad offs himself and mom konks out. Sis, Ginnifer Goodwin, is a you know what and Ben Foster wanders around like a dazed holy man. The mentally ill are supposed to be smarter than us in these films. Send the local DPA more of your tax money because these losers need to be locked up for sure. They're nuts.

The scene of liberation where Matt Perry has to do something really awful to his daffy neighbors lawn, jeech, embarrassing, awful, so uncool. Couldn't he just poison the dog?