BEFORE: I used up all my other connections, so June Squibb carries over from "Nebraska" - I worked out this chain months ago, and it's taking me so long to figure out if there's a better chain that it's simpler just to stick with this one. Perhaps I should just finish out my own year as planned, and let next year take care of itself.
THE PLOT: Two bird enthusiasts try to defeat the cocky, cutthroat world record holder in a year-long bird-spotting competition.
AFTER: It's funny that this one comes along at this time, because it's all about partaking in a hobby in an organized fashion. As these characters are to birds, I am to movies - some people just look and go, "Hey, there's a bird." while others have to over-complicate the process, and try to see more birds and better birds than the next guy. Hey, that's just like me! Where some people just watch movies, I'm in my 7th "Big Year" in a row, and I just love organizing, note-taking and overcomplicating things!
I can't even remember the last time I watched a movie without making sure that it shared an actor with the previous day's movie, or at least connected to it thematically. And if you saw the cast lists I scribble down, with circled names and arrows connecting movies, you might think the Unabomber had written a new manifesto. But the note-taking, the blogging, the obsessive re-ordering of the lists all bring me some measure of satisfaction - in some cases, more satisfaction than watching the films themselves.
So I think I know where these birders are coming from. Whatever your hobby is, whether it's drinking beer or reading books or training ferrets, it's all too easy to let that hobby take over bigger and bigger parts of your life. Once people know you as the "ferret guy" you'll be getting ferret-related Christmas gifts and people will be cutting out articles about ferrets from the newspaper for you, in case you didn't see them (which you probably did) and then before long you're attending a ferret convention and wondering how you got so deep down the ferret-hole.
Really, it's all about balance. A hobby is fine as long as it doesn't get in the way of your job or your relationship. At least, I think that's the message here, since we're presented with three different men at different stages of life, who pursue the same hobby, but their lives are all out of balance in different ways. One has no job, so he has the time for the hobby, but no income to support it. Another has spent too much time at his job, running a company, and he feels he hasn't spent enough time on his hobby, so he retires to devote himself to a year of bird-watching.
Finally we have the record holder, Kenny Bostick. He's got the time and he's got the money (apparently) but he swings too far in the other direction. He devotes so much time to the hobby that his relationships suffer. References are made to previous relationships that have dissolved because he's been so obsessed with bird-watching, and now his wife is pregnant, but since he's always traveling around to see birds, she's forced to become independent, simply because he's never there. Even though he's not seeking balance, it's clear that his life could use some.
It's odd that this adds to the theme this week of fathers and sons connecting ("Nebraska", "The Lego Movie") because the younger slacker birder ends up re-connecting with his father over the quest to see a nearby snow owl. But also in this past week there have been instances of people who are running from fatherhood ("Delivery Man", "Jobs") I think that's also represented here in Bostick, although I'm not quite sure if he's reluctant to be a father, or if the lure of bird-watching is just greater for him.
The three different men are really on the same quest - spot the most birds in a calendar year, breaking (or maintaining) the current record. This could be any sport, really - or any pastime like crosswords or chess or poker - but the focus on bird-watching here is a simple way to place their quests in various scenic landscapes across the U.S. (Finally, someone understands that film is a VISUAL medium, and doesn't lend itself as well to board meetings and such.)
I think any qualms I have are with the sport of bird-watching itself, rather than the three participants that are focused on here. These three all seem like honest men, in that they all have to SEE the bird, or take its picture, before they'll record it in their logs. It seems that not all birders follow these rules, some will note a bird after only hearing it - but since the whole thing runs pretty much on the honor system, there's nothing preventing anyone from falsifying their logs and claiming sightings that never took place. Gee, if it's that simple then I can be a champion birder just by writing down a bunch of bird names.
But even though I don't fully understand the sport (not that I have to, I've got a bunch of boxing films coming up next week, and I don't really get that sport either...) I do understand collecting, because that's kind of my thing. I collect comic books, Star Wars autographs, movies, and a number of other things. And I understand the compulsive nature of collecting, from keeping things organized to completing perfect sets of things. I've got a signed photo from every Imperial officer with a name, for example, or every snowspeeder pilot from "The Empire Strikes Back". But just as I've neared completion, with only Frank Oz and James Earl Jones as the only missing major actors, they had to go and film a new "Star Wars" film, so I fear that the collection will now never be complete.
For some of the autographs in my collection, I've gone great distances, endured stage shows I didn't want to see, or stood in long lines - but for others, it was as simple as ordering them from web-sites. I'm reminded of two notable "Doonesbury" characters, Dick Davenport and Jimmy Thudpucker. Dick was a bird watcher himself, and sought the elusive Bachman's Warbler. But when he finally had the chance to take its picture, fate intervened and he suffered a heart attack before he could click the shutter. With his dying motion, he reached up and got the shot, achieving some measure of immortality. In another strip, rock legend Jimmy Thudpucker is seen engaging in his chosen hobby, collecting stamps. From his hot tub, he phones up a stamp dealer and orders a complete set of stamps from Belgium, then decides to move on to France next.
Perhaps these two characters represent the extremes of collecting - but so do the characters in "The Big Year". Bostick is an extreme example of someone who puts his hobby ahead of everything, including his personal life. Over the years I've heard about people who set out to visit every Starbucks in the country, or to see a game played in every MLB or NFL stadium over the course of a season, and if that quest makes someone happy or brings them some feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction, then it's fine. It's only when people become so obsessive in the hunt that they lose something else, and I'm thinking here of notable focused athletes like Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong.
It's notable that Bostick never seems to find the right balance, he's aware of what he's giving up to maintain his quest, so the implication seems to be that sacrifice is an essential component of success, but people who manage to find a balance, while they may be less successful, could be happier in the long run.
NITPICK POINT: For what is being positioned here as a competitive sport, there seems to be a lot of sharing of information in bird-watching, most notably people telling other people where to go to see certain birds. If this is truly competitive, why are they being so open about it? Is it a case where people just HAVE to talk about what they've seen where, in order to qualify, or is there some dichotomy between the competitive & cooperative aspects of the hobby? I mean, nothing says people CAN'T work together to see birds, and in some cases in this film, people notably do, but if we're talking just about breaking records, and it being competitive, I'd imagine people would be more tight-lipped about what birds they've seen where. Again, maybe I just don't understand the nature of the activity.
Also starring Owen Wilson (last seen in "The Internship"), Steve Martin (last seen in "The Out-of-Towners" (1999)), Jack Black (last seen in "Cradle Will Rock"), Rosamund Pike (last seen in "The World's End"), JoBeth Williams (last seen in "Wyatt Earp"), Rashida Jones (last seen in "Celeste & Jesse Forever"), Kevin Pollak (last seen in "Miami Rhapsody"), Joel McHale (last seen in "Ted"), Brian Dennehy (last seen in "Semi-Tough"), Dianne Wiest (last seen in "Practical Magic"), Jim Parsons (last seen in "The Muppets"), Anthony Anderson (last seen in "Hustle & Flow"), Anjelica Huston (last seen in "Frances"), Tim Blake Nelson (last seen in "Syriana"), with cameos from Al Roker, Steven Weber, Corbin Bernsen, Barry Shabaka Henley, and the voice of John Cleese (last heard in "Planes").
RATING: 6 out of 10 maxed-out credit cards
This is why I have a premium cable channel. I wouldn't have gone out to see this in the theaters but o'course I'll watch it on a weekday evening at home, based on the cast list. And it's a terrific movie.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's partly due to the fact that they packed the cast with some of the best character actors around. You could even say that the leads are mostly character actors. But the background players -- Kevin Pollak, Brian Dennehy, Diane Lane, Angelica Huston, more -- are each the sort of actors where you get the ball to them with a sense of certainty that they'll find the end zone.
It was also swell to see Steve Martin do his "Wild And Crazy Guy" dance again after thirty years.
The story itself is classic, ticking-clock storytelling. A definitive arc and a clear objective for everyone. Books on storytelling always encourage you to ask yourself "What does this character want?" ("To complete a Big Year and maybe win the thing") and "What are they willing to do to get it?" Here we see two characters find their limits, while the third finds his limitations.
Hobbies can enhance your life. You must remain alert, however, or else they can take over your life. When the point of the exercise isn't to learn more about the world and yourself but to simply acquire (action figures, autographs, more bird sightings) it's time to step back or even step away for good.
Your final blog post in this series will be interesting. Months after you crossed the final movie out of your final notebook, and can look back upon this project with some perspective. At the end, did you find this whole thing nourishing? Did it expand your life? Or at some point did it become a dull duty?