Movie Review: Bird Box

Bird Box *** / *****

Directed by: Susanne Bier   

Written by: Eric Heisserer based on the novel by Josh Malerman.

Starring: Sandra Bullock (Malorie), Trevante Rhodes (Tom), John Malkovich (Douglas), Rosa Salazar (Lucy), Sarah Paulson (Jessica), Tom Hollander (Gary), Machine Gun Kelly (Felix), Danielle Macdonald (Olympia), BD Wong (Greg), Parminder Nagra (Dr. Lapham), Jacki Weaver (Sheryl), Lil Rel Howery (Charlie), Amy Gumenick (Samantha), Taylor Handley (Jason).

 

I always admire when a genre film has an utterly ridiculous premise, and refuses to try and explain the reasons behind it. Most movies that exist in some sort of strange, post-apocalyptic world twist themselves into knots trying to explain the unexplainable. In Bird Box, the weird premise is that people who are outside who see, well, something, go insane and try to kill themselves or others. If you don’t look, you’re fine – but if you do look, you’re done. What do they see? Why do they go insane? Who cares – the movie doesn’t. The movie just uses this admittedly ridiculous premise as a way get use into that post-apocalyptic world, and then to goose the scares in it when the people venture into the wider world. And as silly as it is – it works.

 

The film flips back and forth in time over about a five-year period. During the earlier time period, Malorie (Sandra Bullock) is pregnant, and worried about bonding with her new baby – she never planned on being a mother, and doesn’t know how she’ll handle it. She is talking with her sister (Sarah Paulson) – and we hear news stories about this weird rash of suicides and violence on the other side of the world, when suddenly it hits them as well. Malorie ends up in a big house with a group of survivors – the kind and sensitive Tom (Trevante Rhodes), asshole Douglas (John Malkovich), the kind and also pregnant Danielle (Olympia) – etc. as the world around them crumbles. In the present, Malorie and two five-year-old kids – who she calls Boy and Girl (gee, I wonder where they came from) are venturing out, down the river, wearing blindfolds, to try and get to a new safety zone. Since none of the other people in that house are with her, we assume that things will not work out for them – although we don’t know how it will all go wrong.

 

The film was directed by Susanne Bier – a Danish filmmaker, who has had an up and down career – with some great films (like the Danish language Brothers) and some awful films, like Serena – which somehow managed the trick of making a Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence movie completely without charm. She hasn’t really done a lot of genre work before – and maybe that’s why Bird Box is as effective as it is. Bier doesn’t try to goose the story along with obvious scare sequences, boo moments or set pieces. Instead, she places us inside this crazy world, and then just kind of goes along for the ride. The biggest asset she has is her excellent ensemble cast – lead by Bullock, doing very solid work, who help to elevate the material.

 

Bird Box is hardly a great film. It is too log at just over two hours, and while the lack of real scare set pieces is effective in one way, it also lends to the monotony of the film in another – eventually, everything starts to kind of feel the same. It also must be noted that while I am grateful the film didn’t try and explain its premise too closely – that doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have more than its share of exposition in the dialogue. I also cannot help but think that the film missed the opportunity to do something really good with the people who see whatever it is and don’t kill themselves – they just become some sort of religious fanatic. There is something deeper there that the movie missed.

 

Ultimately, Bird Box is an effective little thriller. It does some different things than what I was anticipating in some very interesting ways. It doesn’t quite pull it all off – but you have to admire the effort.