Love Birds (Murphy, 2011)

Last updated on: March 21, 2015 at 10:07 pm by Kenneth R. Morefield

Love Birds (Murphy, 2011) 2015-03-21T22:07:12-05:00 Kenneth R. Morefield

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Love Birds is an innocuous romantic comedy from New Zealand featuring a sad mope (Rhys Darby) who adopts and nurses a duck and eventually falls for the woman (Sally Hawkins) to whom he turns for advice.

The most notable aspect of the film is the presence of Sally Hawkins, whom American audiences may recognize from Made in Dagenham, Happy-Go-Lucky, Jane Eyre, Never Let Me Go, and Great Expectations. Hawkins is one of the great under-appreciated actresses of her day, but she is hampered by a script that gives her nothing much to do except to stand around and wait for Darby’s character to notice her. Darby, in his defense, is distracted by caring for his duck.

Romantic comedies have a formula, and Love Birds follows it fairly carefully. The characters “meet cute” (in this case over the duck), one or more of them is seemingly unavailable (in this case Doug has just been dumped by a long-time girlfriend), they fall in love unawares (Doug helps Holly’s son get over his fears of an asteroid hitting the earth), and one (in this case Doug) falls for someone else at just the wrong moment. Stir in a liberal number of quirky friends to act as foils or advisers.

The execution is acceptable, Darby and Hawkins are pros and the search for the real emotion buried in the conventional situations. The eleventh hour complication is, perhaps, too predicable, as are the responses of each of the potential lovebirds to it. I did appreciate the film’s understanding that sometimes just saying you are sorry is not enough, but much as with the more well known Forgetting Sarah Marshall, once the film has the aggrieved party reject a simple apology as insufficient, the script doesn’t know how to get them back together again. That’s probably indicative of the fact that this is film that is more about humorous situations than character insight. Beyond the generic emotions of preferring to be loved than alone, it is hard to intuit what the characters are feeling, so the script always feels like it is waiting for the lovers to catch up.

Love Birds is being marketed as part of Spiritual Cinema Circle, a DVD subscription that purports to offers “uplifting” stories that might not have made it to wide release in the United States. It’s unclear, based on the example of this film, whether the focus is more on “feel good” movies, wholesome (PG-13 or below) films, or films that explore spiritual themes. If the latter, Love Birds is a little bit of a stretch. There are, perhaps, intimations of of postmodern existential angst in the son’s fears of a cataclysmic disaster, and the characters’ behaviors and worldview may be more or less informed by moral traditions of Western religion, but had I seen the film in a different context I would be hard pressed to call it “spiritual.”

Spiritual Cinema Circle

Previous Post

November 12, 2012

Head Games (James, 2012)

Next Post

November 21, 2012 The Sessions (Lewin, 2012)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Years Later 1999 Top 5 2007 Top 10 2008 Favorite Discoveries 2008 Top 10 2009 Favorite Discoveries 2009 Top 10 2010 Favorite Discoveries 2010 Top 10 2011 Top 10 2012 Top Ten 2013 Top Ten 2014 Top Ten Best Picture Winners Christian Spotlight on Entertainment Christianity Today Coming Soon Disclosure Disclosure--AS Disclosure--Book Disclosure--DVDS Disclosure--SEOL Disclosure--Travel Dissenting Opinion Elsewhere Emergenetics Essays Featured Film Fest DC--2014 Film Festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2011 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014 Headline Interviews Laura on the Oscar Winners Podcasts Quick Impressions Reviews RiverRun Film Festival 2014 Television The Criterion Collection The Thin Place To Stream or Not to Stream? Top 10s and Other Lists Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Toronto International Film Festival 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Uncategorized Video Virginia Film Festival 2011 Virginia Film Festival 2013 Women's Film Festival 2012

Select a Month February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am stone tablets written by the finger of God, given on a mountain shrouded in smoke. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Ten Commandments The law of Moses Ark of the Covenant God's covenant