Charlie, a brilliant economics student, has just put her life on hold while waiting for an improvement in that of her mother, Laura, who is suffering from cancer. In order to take care of the latter, Charlie left the city and came to settle on her mother’s farm. Already tense, cohabitation is disrupted by the arrival of Solange, a grandmother that Charlie did not know he had. In dramatic comedy Funny Birds (Throughout the seasons), three generations of women played by Morgan Saylor, Andrea Riseborough and Catherine Deneuve, bicker, reconcile and, above all, support each other.
The plot of this pleasant film co-produced, among others, by Martin Scorsese, is nothing very new, but the three main actresses are convincing, and the rural context, as pretty as anything.
At the start, everyone judges everyone, except perhaps Solange, who has more perspective, her rich experience helping. Charlie reproaches her mother for never being interested in her accomplishments, while Laura, who lives in self-sufficiency, accuses her daughter of being a neoliberal traitor. Laura is also angry with her mother, Solange, for having abandoned her as a child in order to go on an adventure.
Here, the screenplay by Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via, who also co-wrote the production, addresses the very interesting, because still taboo, subject of refusing to be a mother. Indeed, as Solange explains to Charlie, it was by accident, after a night with a boy she met by chance, that she once became pregnant, at a time when abortion was illegal. After “trying, very hard”, Solange judged it better to leave Laura with her father.
Unfortunately, this section promises to be captivating, and which sheds new light on the relationship between Laura and Solange, is dispatched in a single scene, in a single exchange.
It’s a shame, but in this case representative of the superficial approach of the film. It’s nice throughout, but it stays on the surface.
Talented actresses
On the other hand, what would have benefited from being less developed is this laborious subplot concerning Laura’s chickens, hidden by Solange and Charlie, because they are threatened with slaughter because of a rumor of avian flu. This whole part, which includes a police investigation, is very implausible and takes up a lot of narrative space.
During these pseudo-incredible adventures, we move away from the essential, namely these three portraits of women. That being said, with such talented actresses, the spectacle of subsequent heartbreaks and mending remains quite entertaining.