“Birdman” – It Will Drive You Batty [MOVIE REVIEW]
Michael Keaton in BIRDMAN. Photo by Alison Rosa. Copyright © 2014 Twentieth Century Fox.
Alejandro González Iñárritu is practically unique among directors working today as his films are created for a niche audience and yet seem to attract critical acclaim, big name stars and mainstream distributors. “Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” is no exception and therein lies its strengths and its weaknesses. “Birdman” is a relatable tale of resurrection but told with a magical realism overlay. For those who find magical realism on the screen difficult to grasp and absorb, and I am one of those, it can be quite distracting. Nevertheless, even someone as concrete as I am can recognize genius when gently slapped across the face with it and “Birdman” is a work of genius regardless of whether it works for you or not.
“Birdman” tells the story of an actor who’s seen his better days from both a career and personal vantage point. Riggan (Michael Keaton) made his name and reputation as the superhero character Birdman in two films but, dissatisfied with the proposed sequel, he chooses to walk away from his golden goose into what he hopes will be better acting pastures. It was a giant miscalculation and he’s been adrift ever since. What he needs is a comeback that will highlight all his skills and, like the dilettante that he is, he chooses Broadway. But this isn’t the typical story of a Hollywood celebrity alighting in an established play counting on his cult to follow him into the theater. No. This is Riggan directing himself in his own adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story, “What We talk About When We Talk About Love,” a theme that resonates as obtusely on stage and as it does in life. Novice triple threat. What could possibly go wrong?
When, shortly before the opening preview, a freak accident fells his abysmal co-lead, he must find another actor up for the role. It is his leading lady Leslie (Naomi Watts) who suggests her partner Mike (Edward Norton), a leading light on Broadway who recently lost or jettisoned, depending on who’s telling the story, his gig and is now available. Mike will give the play the gravitas it has been missing and Riggan eagerly mortgages his Malibu beach house in order obtain Mike’s services. What transpires is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”
Iñárritu illustrates Riggan’s inner life by showing us his magical powers. Riggan is often visited by his Birdman alter-ego who both gives him the courage to continue but is also a pointed reminder that he abandoned his superhero franchise just before the genre took off, literally and figuratively. Riggan’s attempts at Zen meditation are as likely to yield peaceful levitation as they are destructive telekinetic mayhem.
There are many wonderful elements to this film. Certainly there is a knowing nod to Michael Keaton’s own career, having walked away from the successful early “Batman” movies. But it’s also a love poem to the difficulties of mounting a serious play on Broadway. The backstage scenes and rehearsals are full of angst, conflict and method acting, creating both tension and humor in almost equal doses.
Most importantly this is a story of redemption for it’s not just Riggan’s career that needs resuscitating but also his family life. Divorced for all the cliché reasons that testosterone overdosed men get divorced but still in love with his wife, Riggan must also try to reconnect with his alienated daughter, freshly out of rehab, and wearing her anger like a raw wound. Not thrilled working with her father as a “gofer, Sam (Emma Stone) loses no opportunity to make everyone around her suffer.
For every element that may not work for you, there is one aspect of this film that leaves most others in the dust and that is the acting. Each actor inhabits his or her role in ways that are both visceral and profound. Michael Keaton went so visibly to seed for this role that it is difficult not to believe that Riggan isn’t Michael Keaton. Rest assured, he’s not but it is a tribute to Iñárritu’s persuasive abilities that he was able convince Keaton to take on the rather unflattering role of an older, out of shape actor who is still defined by what he considered a mediocre role.
Edward Norton is positively astonishing in the role of a narcissistic, laser-focused method actor whose technique overwhelms and infuriates everyone around him. And sweet Emma Stone, she of “The Help,” is unrecognizable and incendiary as the disenfranchised, existential daughter. This is an amazing breakthrough performance propelling a good actress into the stratosphere.
Zach Galifianikus, as Keaton’s producer and friend, is a leavening agent when things get too heavy. It is a hilarious in-joke that the hammy actor replaced by Riggan is played by Jeremy Shamos, one of today’s leading lights on Broadway. And in the small, but pivotal role of a self-absorbed, self-impressed vitriolic Broadway critic, Lindsay Duncan (a Tony and Olivier-winning actor) steals the light during her two short scenes.
Putting everything together, even if I’m not a fan of magical realism, I am a fan of this film and hope it finds an audience because this is creative filmmaking at its best with acting one will remember for quite some time.
Opening Friday October 17 at the Landmark Theatre and ArcLight Hollywood.