In Funny Birds, three generations of women from the same family are forced to learn to live together on a small rural chicken farm in New Jersey. Source: Australian Catholics.
Funny Birds is a funny title – funny with humour, but also funny peculiar.
Does it refer to the chickens that Laura (Riseborough) has rescued after they are too old for the big chicken runs and fosters them, collecting the eggs and marketing them with her own brand?
Or does it refer to Laura herself, her young daughter Charlie (Saylor), who leaves college to care for Laura who has become ill? Or it is Solange (Deneuve), who abandoned her daughter, Laura, when she was very young?
Solange is an unexpected addition to the family but she enters the life of the farm. It is fascinating to see Deneuve (79 during filming), working with the chickens and in the garden, while gradually bonding with her daughter and granddaughter.
One could say that there is no major reason for seeing Funny Birds. But, should you come across it and are interested in a sympathetic/empathetic focus on three generations of women, it is enjoyable.
Review by Fr Peter Malone MSC, Jesuit Media
Funny Birds: Starring Catherine Deneuve, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Saylor. Directed by Hanna Ladoul, Marco La Via. 97 minutes. Rated M (Coarse language and drug use.)
FULL REVIEW
Funny Birds (Australian Catholics)
