This is a bad movie. I say this despite the fact that 1) I am a birdwatcher, 2) I think Wm. Hurt is a fine actor, 3) I love redheads, 4) the Newfoundland coast is quite striking, and 5) all the acting is generally pretty good. But actors can't do anything with a script this bad, and direction this witless.
The movie really, really wants to be endearingly quirky, and it tries really, really hard to be quirky. The problem is, you can't force quirkiness; you have to be genuinely quirky. Forcing it just reveals the desperation behind a lame script with barely a laugh through the whole thing. (The one exception: "Who's going to come after us? The International Bird Police? The IBP?" Not an exact quote but close enough.) All the many subplots seem meant to give a kind of madcap atmosphere to the events, but none is fleshed out and they seem, to put it kindly, implausible.
Telling is the fact that the writer didn't even bother to do basic research on birds and birdwatching. If you can't do the little things right, you aren't going to do the big things right.
Hurt seemed faintly embarrassed at times to have to do what he was asked to do. The one single convincing scene in the movie---when Hurt silently rubs Parker's tired foot---was probably made up on the spot, because it's too real to be part of the rest of this contrived mess.
The movie really, really wants to be endearingly quirky, and it tries really, really hard to be quirky. The problem is, you can't force quirkiness; you have to be genuinely quirky. Forcing it just reveals the desperation behind a lame script with barely a laugh through the whole thing. (The one exception: "Who's going to come after us? The International Bird Police? The IBP?" Not an exact quote but close enough.) All the many subplots seem meant to give a kind of madcap atmosphere to the events, but none is fleshed out and they seem, to put it kindly, implausible.
Telling is the fact that the writer didn't even bother to do basic research on birds and birdwatching. If you can't do the little things right, you aren't going to do the big things right.
Hurt seemed faintly embarrassed at times to have to do what he was asked to do. The one single convincing scene in the movie---when Hurt silently rubs Parker's tired foot---was probably made up on the spot, because it's too real to be part of the rest of this contrived mess.