A thing with feathers
Injured bird helps a devastated woman find hope again in a warm, if simplistic, tale
Penguin Bloom
Cast: Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, magpies Director: Glendyn Ivin Duration: 1 h 35 m Available: Netflix
Bad news and good news for ornithophiles. The bad news is that there are no penguins in Penguin Bloom. (There are no floral blooms, either — at least, none worth mentioning.) But the film is chock full of magpies. In fact, by the credits’ count there are 10: Gerry, Clipper, Eugene, Maggie May, Mavis, Pew, Pip, Wendell, Swoop and Hollywood. (Guessing that last one was a real showboater.)
This parliament of magpies (look it up!) together play the titular avian, named for its penguinesque colouring and for the family that finds it, young and injured, and nurses it back to health.
Australian director Glendyn Ivin doesn’t waste time setting up this heartwarming tale. By the five-minute mark we’ve learned that it’s based on a true story (confusingly, it was also produced by Made up Stories Films) and that the central non-bird-related plot revolves around Samantha Bloom, played by Naomi Watts.
Sam and her family — husband Cameron (Andrew Lincoln) and three kids — are on vacation in Thailand when an accident involving a rotted railing sends her over the edge of a building. The resulting spinal injury leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. An avid outdoorswoman, she soon sinks into a deep depression, uncertain how to relate to her family or her life in this new state.
Enter Penguin, rescued from the beach near her home. It’s curious and mischievous and sounds like a droid from a Star Wars movie. Sam at first wants nothing to do with it — won’t even call it anything except “bird” — but wouldn’t you know, she eventually bonds with the creature, and opens up to the joy it brings into their lives.
Well, you would know, because you’ve seen variations of this theme before, usually involving adorable dogs. Penguin Bloom doesn’t exactly break new ground in the wounded-animal genre, but the little magpie — each of the 10 of them — is pretty endearing.
As Lincoln said during the news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premièred last fall: “They say never work with children or animals. The reason is when they’re good, no one’s going to be looking at you.”
He also delivered this wisdom: “Everybody in England thinks they can do an Australian accent — until they get to Australia.” But fair dinkum he does, even alongside the great Jacki Weaver, doing comic relief as Sam’s well-meaning, completely clueless mom. “you’re not a spastic,” she says, trying to be nice.
But the film really takes flight when Penguin finally does likewise. And it may be ornithologically inappropriate, but there’s a lovely, amateur version of The Beatles’ Blackbird on the soundtrack. Penguin Bloom is a little simplistic, but it might also steal your heart like it’s a shiny trinket. ∏∏∏½