THE Analysis
Netflix steps in and shortly after the brilliant art of Roma presents another more demanding work. Even in this small selection, you can see how he has moved over the last year, after all, last year before Christmas we only got Will Smith in the interesting, but still B-grade Bright . It has now managed to lure a proven acting star as well as an acclaimed director, their collaboration will not change the world, but it will easily entertain a TV viewer bored with fairy tales. We will explore the Bird Box horror Movie here.
Sandra Bullock has been quite selective in recent years, this year she only appeared as Debbie. But neither she nor her friends did a very interesting spinoff of Danny’s partners. But her best career performances have come in moments when her character wasn’t looking too good, and she manages that position here as well. In two lines five years apart, we follow her first pregnant, then taking care of two children. If you don’t know that she is clearly over fifty, you won’t mind her portrayal of a woman in expectation. And if you know that (like now thanks to me), then you can put up with it.
In the previously mentioned first line, we follow her together with a group of other survivors who have to face the onset of a mysterious epidemic, forcing people to commit suicide. From this obviously disparate team, misanthropic alcoholic John Malkovich and cocky nice guy Trevante Rhodes stand out. More than half a dozen unwilling heroes are trying to find ways to survive. And thanks to the way the story is told, we know that at least Sandra and the children will succeed. But at what cost?
The threat itself is too vaguely reminiscent of A Quiet Place with a slight change of senses – this time a person can be heard, but must not see anything himself, otherwise the mysterious force will force him to indiscriminately disgusting suicide. However, this is not a cheap rip-off of a successful horror film. But an adaptation of a decade-old book, so the unfortunate distribution date is mainly to blame for these parallels.
You probably don’t know the name Eric Heisserer, but three years ago he wrote Arrivals for Villeneuve. And Danish director Susanne Bier is doing a similar service. The last time she caught the eye with her emotional twist in Second Chance. Before that she scored several commercially successful pieces and for Lepší světin 2011 she even received an Oscar. She knows very well when to press the saw, and although her efforts to shock the viewer sometimes go to the edge, she has a strong directorial hand in the film. Heisserer shows again that he is all about characters and exploring the limits of humanity; for a logically elaborated invasion/epidemic with an explanation of mysterious technicalities, you have to look elsewhere. Without further analysis, the suicidal pandemic only serves to throw the individual figures into extreme conditions. Which is quite a shame, but you can live with it.
And that goes for the whole movie, after all. It’s not boring, it maintains the atmosphere well and, thanks to Sandra Bullock’s performance, it even draws you in pleasantly. And it also shows that Netflix is not going to shy away from rougher material – both in terms of explicit violence and emotional tearing. But for this to be a more fundamental work, there are too many half-way motifs left. These Bird Box horror movies showcase a great way of storytelling.
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