Synopsis: Passing through New York, a French artist of Jewish faith tells her American grandson about her youth during the Occupation.
Expelled from school for bullying Auggie, a boy disfigured by a congenital malformation, Julian Albans (Bryce Gheisar) has difficulty acclimatizing to his new private school. Visiting New York for a retrospective devoted to his work, the French artist Sara Blum (Helen Mirren), Julian’s grandmother, offers to tell him about her youth during the Occupation in order to speak to him about courage and kindness. .
In 1942, with the help of a boy in her class nicknamed Crab (Orlando Schwertd) because of his handicap, Sara Blum (Ariella Glaser) narrowly escapes the Nazis. With the help of his parents (Gillian Anderson and Jo Stone-Fewings), Crab then installs Sara in the barn. While she did not know the first name of this bullied boy, the young Jewish girl will get to know her savior better.
Continuation of the novel Wonder (2012) by R. J. Palacio, adapted for the cinema by Stephen Chbosky with Jacob Tremblay in the role of Auggie, White Bird is the adaptation of the first graphic novel by the same author. Although filmed six years later, the feature film picks up the story at the moment where that of Wonderwhich explains the physical transformation of Bryce Gheisar, now 20 years old. A detail quickly forgotten since as soon as Helen Mirren enters the scene, exquisite as a flamboyant granny teacher, the young actor is totally eclipsed.
Furthermore, most of this drama by Marc Forster, written by Mark Bomback, a screenwriter experienced in science fiction and action films, takes place in the past. True to himself, the director of Finding Neverland There he admirably directs his young actors, including the moving Orlando Schwertd, within a cast where Gillian Anderson also shines.
Like the previous part, White Bird narrowly escapes mawkishness and tearful melodrama. Relying on a conventional staging and on the postcard aesthetic of his faithful collaborator Matthias Königswieser in photography, Forster was able to find the balance between adolescent romance and the tale with marvelous overtones set against the backdrop of war.
Reminding at times The Diary of Anne Frankby George Stephens, and Undergroundby Agnieszka Holland, White Bird is based on a story that certainly reserves emotion, but too few surprises, and which would have benefited from being tightened up.
In the room
Drama
White Bird
VF: White bird)
Marc Forster
Helen Mirren, Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwertd
2 hours