Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman really scored at the 2015 Oscars and was nominated in 9 categories and won 4 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography). Birdman is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is very much the flavour of Hollywood and repeated his success in 2016 with The Revenant. I had not caught any of his earlier movies, except for Babel in bits and pieces, and wanted to understand his movies a little better.

Thus, when Birdman was being telecast on TV, I taped it and then watched it at leisure. The premise of the movies is that Riggan Thomson (Micheal Keaton), is an almost has-been actor who was known for his earlier roles in a superhero franchise called Birdman. Riggan is looking for validation for his acting and decides to write, direct and act in a Broadway play based on the work of Raymond Carver called "What do we talk about when we talk about love". His producer is his best friend and lawyer, Jake (Zach Galifianakis), assisted by his daughter Sam (Emma Stone) and also stars his girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough).

The rehearsals are not going very well when Laura suggests that Riggan bring in Mike (Edward Norton) as second maie lead in the play. Mike wows Riggan from the get go and Riggan starts becoming very optimistic about the play. There is a sub-plot in which we hear a voice in Riggan's head (ostensibly from the Birdman character) and it is unclear whether Riggan is actually Birdman or whether this is just in his head. The opening shot shows Riggan sitting cross legged in his room hovering about a feet in the air which fuels this suspicion in the mind of the viewer.

The play is now going through audience previews and in one of them, Riggan finds himself accidentally locked out of the theater with his robe stuck in the door. He has to abandon the robe and walk around the block (through Times Square) in nothing but his underwear. There are plenty of people who shoot videos of the spectacle and it goes completely viral on social media (which Riggan does not understand, though Sam assures him that it is a good thing to be viral).

Meanwhile, Mike is getting on Rigan's nerves with his attempts to bring realism to his performance, including drinking real gin on stage and also attempting to force himself on Laura in one of the scenes. In the finale, Riggan is required to threaten Mike with a gun and Mike is quite unhappy with the fake gun that Riggan is using, saying that he does not feel threatened at all with a fake gun. At some point, Mike substitutes the fake gun for a real gun and on opening night, Riggan while waving it around, sets it off, accidentally shooting off part of his own nose.

Meanwhile, the New York Times theater critic, Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan) had promised Riggan to rip his play to shreds since she believed that this was nothing but a vanity project and Riggan had no idea of what he was doing. Given the dramatic first show, Tabitha changes her mind and while not exactly giving the play a glowing review, covers it in a full page review, titling it "The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" from where the sub-title of the movie comes.

Thus far are the facts, now my impressions. The primary cast is impeccable, I have always been a fan of Michael Keaton and he lives the part of Riggan Thomson, similarly Ed Norton is a very gifted actor and whatever he does is always worth watching. The rest of the cast don't have much to do, except for Emma Stone and she doesn't have to do much beyond slouching around. There is some spark between Ed Norton and her, especially when they are playing Truth or Dare on the roof the theater. Zach has a very un-Zach role (think the Hangover, not!) and that is a good thing. So the acting is fairly serviceable.

My primary problem is that Birdman is a movie being made for critics and not for the paying public. The cinematography is a case in point, the entire movies feels like it is shot from a hand-held camera following whoever is in the frame at that time. I am sure cinephiles everywhere would be swooning over it, however it didn't do much for me. Similarly, the story is very basic and just a device to have people say interesting things to each other. As for the direction, I would give Iñárritu some points here, however not enough to make me want to watch it again.

On the whole, no problem if you have missed seeing it, however worth a dekko if you happen to catch it at your convenience.

Thanks for reading!