Rare Birds | Review

Romantic comedy is neither funny nor interesting.

Any comparisons that may or will be drawn between Hallstrom’s The Shipping News and this new Canadian-financed film pretty much ends at the fact that they both take place along the coastal coves of Newfoundland. The major difference between the two is all the filmmaking miscues in Sturla Gunnarsson’s Rare Birds makes the rather ordinary Shipping News look like Oscar gold.

Dave Purcell played by William Hurt (The Big Chill) lad isn’t the happiest of campers the empty chairs and half closed lights that help save on electricity scream out his life has not always been a hallmark card moment. The signifiers of the middle-aged man lit by somber lights with a pair of tired hands pouring a drink from his liquor cabinet tells the viewer that his business is failing. Unfortunately, the film’s protagonist doesn’t go and slash his wrists, but I promise that you might want to after watching this film- as this opening scene and every scene that follows seem merely like a bunch of narrative track marks. This film goes into many plot directions- is this a film about the possibilities of a found package, or the potential lucrative outcome of a home-made invention of a Phonse Murphy played by Andy Jones? Or is this about a restaurateur’s failing business and the potential for a fling with a hot half his age student Alice played by Molly Parker (Men with Brooms)? The film takes us through a spree of countless and pointless plot points that carry with it a load of what I would call as “nuance baggage”, not only did I find it tiring to follow along in Gunnarsson’s denouement of the story, but I also found that the character motivations were simply inexplicable. Coke habits, a forgotten wife, swat teams and phony ploys in the shape of a bird make this into a true hit and miss romp, not to mention the most repulsive part of Rare Birds in the form of this 20-minute inside the submarine escapade piece- which accompanied by this annoying a-fiddler’s-worst-night-space-age background music is just about the most unbearable film moment I have witnessed in some time.

So what does this film have going for it? The beautiful coastline perhaps, but definitely not the humor, which is as dry as the east coast Atlantic turf, and the film’s romantic jiffy lacks in authenticity- they could have put all the candles in the Vatican for the restaurant dinner scene and that still couldn’t explain the connection between the two, can a couple of generous looks at one another bring these two together as the film suggests? Even more infrequent than the rare bird are the rare moments of pleasure and when the film credits role up, you may ask yourself…as I did…what was the point to this film?

Rating 0.5 stars