Midlife Crisis Haunts A former box-office star
Former box-office star Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) desires to be back in a limelight again. In a tormenting midlife crisis, the former Birdman star is in desperate to be hired again.
Since he stopped playing the big-hit Birdman role, Mr. Thomsom’s career is in sharp decline. Now, he’s so closely associated with the iconic character that nobody’s eager to hire him.
With his career fading fast and no roles on the horizon, Riggan decides to take it upon himself to orchestrate his own comeback. The plan is to mount a Broadway production, with what’s left of his dwindling savings, of the Raymond Carver short story, “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.”
First, he adapts the short story to the stage, with the idea of not only starring but directing. Then, he enlists the assistance of his skeptical attorney/agent Jake (Zach Galifianakis) and his drug-addicted daughter Sam (Emma Stone), while rounding out the cast with his girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough), fellow film industry refugee, Lesley (Naomi Watts), and her matinee idol beau, Mike (Edward Norton).
Will the washed-up thespian manage to make himself over with the help of this motley crew? Unfortunately, Riggan is a troubled soul with more on his plate than the already intimidating challenge of putting on the play.
For, he happens to be haunted by a discouraging voice in his head telling him he’s going to fail, too. That would be his alter ego, Birdman, a nasty, one-note, blithering birdbrain of balderdash.
Written and directed by Oscar-nominee Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (for Babel), Birdman is a bittersweet portrait of a Hollywood has-been desperate for a second go-round in the limelight. The sublimely scripted dramedy simultaneously paints a perfectly plausible picture of life on the Great White Way courtesy of pithy background banter.
The movie features a plethora of praiseworthy performances, starting with Michael Keaton (Batman) who will likely earn an Oscar nomination in a thinly-veiled case of art imitating life. Also impressive are Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts and an unusually-sedate Zach Galifianakis, if only for his acting against type.
The theater world’s eloquent answer to Black Swan equally-surrealistic exploration of ballet.
Birdman
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for sexuality, brief violence and pervasive profanity
Running time: 119 minutes
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Watch the Birdman trailer:
