Similar to the naturalistic, almost documentary-like aesthetic she laced her film American Honey with, writer/director Andrea Arnold approaches Bird with a realism that, for the majority of its 119 minute running time, rarely lets up to allow audiences a proper escape from the poverty-stricken housing estate setting it largely sits within.
Unfolding through the eyes of its 12-year-old focus, Bailey (Nykiya Adams), Bird follows her uniquely independent life, as she essentially raises herself in the face of a father who largely looks after himself. Said father, Bug (Barry Keoghan), had Bailey at a young age, so he’s hardly adult enough for the responsibility of fatherhood, and given his priorities lie with raising money for his ill-advised wedding – to a woman he’s known only three months – we’re inclined to believe she’s better off fending for herself; even less of a help is her mother, who lives on the other side of town with an abusive boyfriend.
Given how quickly Bailey has had to grow up, we sense just how much of a companion she needs, and she finds a cure for her loneliness in the form of Bird (Franz Rogowski), a homeless man we can’t help but sense a certain threatening nature from. Thankfully he proves to be more of a protector for Bailey, with their relationship proving mutually beneficial in terms of the love she requires and the strength that he needs.
As harsh a film Bird can often prove, with its menacing temperament and grim elements throughout, Arnold – herself raised by a single parent who had her at a teen age – injects moments of joy and hope, as well as a fantastical third act pivot that could prove divisive to certain audiences, but can’t help but feel like a needed reprieve from the majority of its narrative severity.
Whilst Keoghan and the fascinating Rogowski are the type of vanity-free performers that we feel in safe hands with, Bird truly belongs to Adams, a non-actor who is as wise as she is innocent, and as fierce as she is vulnerable. With her organic presence and Arnold’s oft-realistic approach to storytelling, Bird almost exists in a voyeuristic plane, but its sense of magic fidelity allows it to exist in a certain escapism.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Bird is now screening in select Australian theatres.
