This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 13, 2011 - "The Big Year" is a mildly pleasant, feel-fairly-good Hollywood comedy that could have been so much more.
The true-ish story of three obsessed birders competing to observe and identify the most avian species in one year has a good cast. It stars three skilled comic actors -- Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson -- and includes a memorable against-character turn by Anjelica Huston as the tough-talking, salt-cured captain of a ship that hauls birders into dangerous northern seas.
But the two best scenes in the movie focus on birds, not actors. In one, two bald eagles tumble together down the sky in a breathtaking mating dance. In the other, gale-strength autumnal winds prevent countless thousands of south-bound migratory birds from heading across the Gulf of Mexico. They gather in sky-blackening clouds above an island off the coast of Texas, and blanket the sand with species rarely seen in that clime.
In these too-brief scenes, we get some little sense of why these three men, so different in so many ways, are driven to travel thousands of miles just to add one or two birds to their list of sightings, And we get a hint as to why millions of ordinary Americans think of themselves as birders. But not nearly enough to raise "The Bad Year" above the level of being a slight comedy about male rituals in mutual pursuit of the ephemeral.
Here's what the movie fails to convey. In the backyard of a suburban home or on the ledge of a skyscraper in the middle of the city, as well as on a remote Alaskan island or in a swamp in southern Florida, searching for and watching birds is a way of reconnecting with nature and even, perhaps, momentarily catching a glimpse of the sublime. The movie would be much stronger if it conveyed more of the emotions connected with birding, giving us more empathy with these three men who are willing to abandon work and family at a moment's notice to head off in pursuit of a stray sandhill crane or a misplaced blue-footed booby.
No, I'm not a birder. And I was not looking for something you might see on PBS or the Discovery channel about, say, the amazing 40,000-mile annual migration of the sooty shearwater. But the movie would have been much better it had taken a chance and given us more of a sense of wonder at the extraordinary feats of birds and less of a sense of mild amusement at Jack Black once again stumbling over his own chubby little feet. I was looking for something like director Carroll Ballard and actor Charles Martin Smith pulled off in "Never Cry Wolf," the story of a biologist who goes to Alaska to study wolves as nasty predators. He learns much about wolves that surprises him, and in the process also learns much about himself.
But back to the birds and the people who pursue them. The three main characters in the movie are fictionalized versions of the three real men featured in Mark Obmascik's "The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and a Fowl Obsession." Steve Martin plays a very successful businessman who wants to retire and spend his time skiing and birdwatching and admiring his offspring. But duty keeps calling him back to the world of high finance.
Jack Black plays a slacker computer geek who lives with his parents and whose father (Brian Dennehy) ridicules his obsession with birding. The only thing that is keeping him from spending his life chasing birds is lack of money.
And Owen Wilson plays a sneaky building contractor who is trying to break his own record for most birds seen in one year, a figure in excess of 700. Wilson's truly driven character is a trickster, not above sending his opponents off (literally) on a wild goose chase, but the movie makes it clear that he will not take credit for a bird he has not seen or heard. Apparently, competitive birding, which has no real prizes and no official structure, proceeds on the honor system and does so successfully.
Eventually, two of the three main characters become buddies and go birding together. The third remains a loner. Predictable things happen, and characters do pretty much what you think they will do. Much is forgiven. Some acts are punished. Good intentions count for a lot. And then it ends, in a sweet if mushy way. Personally, the movie left me wanting to know a lot more about birders and what drives them, and I guess that's a good thing. I think I'll read the book.
"Love Crime"
In this so-so French suspense film, a senior executive (Kristin Scott Thomas) at a multi-national corporation plays power games with a bright and ambitious underling (Ludivine Sagnier). Midway through the movie, the tables turn, someone is killed, and an inordinately incompetent group of policeman screw up the investigation. Alain Corneau, who died after making the film, co-wrote and directed. Alfred Hitchcock would have done much better, starting with making the characters more interesting, the cops a little smarter, and the big-business setting more believable.
Opened Friday Oct. 7
Harper Barnes, the author of Never Been A Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked The Civil Rights Movement, is a special contributor to the Beacon.