A tender and bittersweet film about a couple dealing with a huge loss and grief in two separate ways, The Starling is a quirky and enjoyable ride.
It is no secret that I love the movie St. Vincent. I wrote about it a little while ago and I watch it every few years. Tonally, it is unlike almost every other film. It is sweet and sad, sarcastic and funny, and it always makes me cry. I’m not wholly sure how to describe it without encouraging you to experience it for yourself, but I actually found quite a bit of the same quality in this film.
The Starling is about Lilly and Jack Maynard, a struggling couple dealing with a huge loss in their lives. Living apart for the moment and not communicating well, Lilly tends to a garden next to her home and is frequently attacked by a particular bird. At the suggestion of a professional, she visits a doctor for advice and befriends him. Eventually discovering that the bird is a Starling, Lilly concocts some ideas for keeping it away and, during the process, finds some hope again.
The plot of The Starling is very different from what the movie is actually about, but I won’t discuss it further and ruin it for you. Just take my word for it. This is a subtle film in many ways, and not entirely about a bird. The bird represents many things that are slowly revealed over the course of the movie.
Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd (who are both in St. Vincent as well) are wonderful as Lilly and Jack. Both are known for playing comedic roles, but these are deeper humans that have sarcastic moments. They work beautifully together, even through their struggles, but individually is where they touched my heart. There is one scene where O’Dowd is vulnerable and broken, with his clear blue eyes in pain, and it wrecked me. Queue my tears.
There are also a bunch of other familiar faces in very small parts in this film. Kevin Klein plays the doctor, who is on screen quite a bit, but you also have Timothy Olyphant, Daveed Diggs, Loretta Devine, Rosalind Chao, and Skyler Gisondo among so many others. If you don’t know their names, you definitely know their faces. It made me wonder if director Theodore Melfi called up his friends and said, “Do you have two days to film a movie?”
I have heard mixed reviews of this film, how it is heavy-handed or predictable, but that wasn’t my experience, although I can understand the critiques. I found the themes of grief, remorse, shame, and anger in the search for any kind of resolution to be much more present and extremely human. To me, it is both touching and charming – and a reminder that to break a cycle, sometimes you have to change things.
Runtime: 104 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: PG-13
Languages Spoken In The Film: English and a little Spanish with English subtitles
It is no secret that I love the movie St. Vincent. I wrote about it a little while ago and I watch it every few years. Tonally, it is unlike almost every other film. It is sweet and sad, sarcastic and funny, and it always makes me cry. I’m not wholly sure how to describe it without encouraging you to experience it for yourself, but I actually found quite a bit of the same quality in this film.
