“When is it happening?” asks Jonathan (Anson Boon), though we’re not quite sure, through the early passages of Roger Michell’s “Blackbird,” what “it” is. We know that Lily (Susan Sarandon) is having trouble getting around, and only seems to be using one of her arms, but she’ll insist “I’ve got this!” or “It’s fine!” whenever anyone tries to help. Finally, once the whole family has gathered for this mysterious weekend gathering, she accidentally drops her wine glass and muses, “Well, you know it’s time when you have to start drinking the Chablis from a paper cup!”
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Lily has a degenerative illness, so this uneasiness will become total immobility, then difficulty eating, then trouble breathing. So she’s going to drink some medicine, and she’ll fall asleep, and she won’t wake up. “Now’s the time do it,” explains her husband Paul (Sam Neill), “now that she’s still in charge of her body.”
So her last wish, before dying, is to spend one last weekend with her family. This means her two daughters, Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Annie (Mia Wasikowska); Annie’s girlfriend (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and Jennifer’s husband (Riann Wilson); Jonathan, their son; and Lily’s longtime best friend (Lindsay Duncan), who’s like a member of the family. But the weight of what they’re leading up to hangs over the event, in which everyone is clumsily trying to say the right thing or get away with saying nothing at all.
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That awkwardness soon gives way to the little jabs and insinuations that can only be delivered with a lifetime of practice. Throughout the weekend, everyone’s resentments and complaints and concerns will bubble up before the big moment arrives; wounds will be reopened, and secrets will be revealed, etc. etc. The script is by Christian Thorpe, adapting his Danish film “Silent Heart,” though it feels more like it was adapted from a play, mostly in the right ways.
It’s a sharp, intimate script, full of good lines that understand how these tricky familial dynamics work; of giving her mother gifts, Jennifer explains, “She never pretends enough. She lies just badly enough that you know she’s lying.” There are expected doses of gallows humor, a weed scene (of course), and a big set-piece around the dinner table – the kind of long sequence that makes for a dynamic second act on stage but can be challenging to pull off in the middle of a movie.
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Michell, the gifted journeyman behind “Notting Hill” and “Changing Lanes,” mostly makes it work. His sturdy ensemble certainly helps. Susan Sarandon turns in one of those performances that periodically reminds you of why we care about someone as politically infuriating as Susan Sarandon, while Winslet manages to mine some humor and pathos out of the rather done-to-death character of the Type-A busybody big sister. Neil is just magnificent, so warm, yet stoic, and keenly aware that there’s something quite compelling about watching a solid guy like him fall apart.
Michell’s visual strategy is also refreshingly experimental (the cinematographer is Mike Eley). In those uncomfortable opening passages, before we even know what’s happening, he somewhat strands his actors, leaving them to labor over minutiae in long, lingering wide shots. He quickens the pace as the significant moment approaches; by the climax, he’s cutting to shreds and moving in tight, snapping the film to attention.
That goose is needed because the picture’s biggest flaw is that it’s so mellow it occasionally veers into inertia. Some of the tonal shifts and grace notes don’t quite land, and Rainn Wilson’s casting is peculiar; he and Winslet aren’t a convincing match-up as his style is just a smidge too broad). And who’re we kidding, we’ve probably all seen enough movies about the familial woes of upper-middle-class white families. But if you’re in the mood for one more, well, “Blackbird” has a lot to offer. [B-]
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