Rare Birds (2001)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Sturla Gunnarsson

Writers:

Edward Riche (novel)
Edward Riche (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 July 2003 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

Fortune can make a man do some pretty fowl things.

Plot:

A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure luminaries to their small Newfoundland town.

Plot Keywords:

Newfoundland | Plan | Auk | Cocaine | Restaurant

Awards:

6 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

William Hurt	...	Dave
Andy Jones	...	Phonce
Molly Parker	...	Alice
Vicky Hynes	...	Deb
Greg Malone	...	Buster Bartlett
Michael Chiasson	...	Dr. Jack Tomlinson
Barry Newhook	...	Caller #1 / Hostage
Laura Tobin	...	Girl #1
Maggie Meyer	...	Girl #2
Frankie O'Neill	...	Brit Woman
Lawrence Barry	...	Hooligan
Leah Lewis	...	Bette
Todd Perrin	...	Cook
Deidre Gillard-Rowlings	...	Waitress
Matthew Clarke	...	Bartender
John Moyes	...	Male Diner
Sheila McCarthy	...	Claire
Bryan Hennessey	...	Cortini
Pete Soucy	...	Bystander
George Jonas	...	Dr. Hans Spiedal
Mark Critch	...	Dougie
Mack Furlong	...	Car Man

Directed by
Sturla Gunnarsson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Edward Riche		novel
Edward Riche		screenplay

Produced by
Sam Feldman	....	co-executive producer
Paul Pope	....	co-producer
Jeff Sackman	....	co-executive producer
Tamara Shannon	....	associate producer
Janet York	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Jonathan Goldsmith

Cinematography by
Jan Kiesser

Film Editing by
Jeff Warren

Casting by
Jon Comerford
Pat McCorkle

Production Design by
Pam Hall

Set Decoration by
Kathee Reardigan

Costume Design by
Jeanie Kimber

Makeup Department
Debbie Vatcher	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alex Pappas	....	first assistant director
Kelly Stone	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Daniel R. Bradette	....	property master
Shelley Cornick	....	key scenic artist
Paul Wade	....	carpenter

Sound Department
Erik Culp	....	foley recordist
Don Ellis	....	boom operator
Bill Mellow	....	sound re-recording mixer
Donna Powell	....	foley artist
Jim Rillie	....	sound
David Yonson	....	adr recordist

Stunts
Randy Boliver	....	stunt coordinator
Eric Bryson	....	stunt coordinator
Mark A. Owen	....	stunt double: Andy Jones

Camera and Electrical Department
Jason Andrews	....	lighting technician
Jake Clarke	....	best boy electric
Jake Clarke	....	underwater electrician
Gary Deneault	....	gaffer
Sean Doran	....	best boy grip
Flora Planchat	....	daily electrician
Karl Simmons	....	key grip

Casting Department
John Mabry	....	casting assistant

Editorial Department
Catherine Rankin	....	negative cutter
Gary Shaw	....	video colorist
D. Gillian Truster	....	first assistant editor
Gord Ventura	....	dailies colorist

Other crew
Kirsten Andrews	....	publicist

Production Companies

• Big Pictures Entertainment
• Pope Productions
• Rare Productions Ltd.

Distributors

• Filmax Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (Germany)
• Lions Gate Films
• Nexo
• Shadow Distribution
• Studio Home Entertainment

Other Companies

• S.L. Feldman & Associates  music supervision

Also Known As:

Oiseaux rares (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and drug use.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Spain:13 | USA:R | Canada:A

Filming Locations:

Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Company:

Big Pictures Entertainment

Trivia:

Director Sturla Gunnarsson did not cast all of the smaller parts, but filled them with interesting characters he encountered during shooting. Barry Newhook, who was a grip for the film, played the role of a hostage, as well as the voice of a caller to a radio show.

Goofs:

Continuity: Level of wine glass when Dave and Phonse are eating in the kitchen.

Soundtrack:

Dirty Old Town

William Hurt, and Newfoundland, in starring roles

I'm a Newfoundlander, so of course I enjoyed "Rare Birds"! There aren't that many movies made in, or about, Newfoundland, and when one does appear, I dash off to see it, regardless of the reviews. I can report, though, that I enjoyed this film, frequently laughing out loud. For some of the laughs, though, you have to know the place and the jargon, and some of the humour might be lost on the average Canadian or American.

(In much the same way, one can feel left out in a foreign-language film - including some British films - when those viewers who actually speak the on-screen language are laughing, and one doesn't get the joke.)

The story is slight, but it more or less works. The main plot involves a chef, David (William Hurt), whose haute-cuisine restaurant, The Auk, near Cape Spear (some 8 miles south and east of St. John's, the capital city) is going fish-belly up, to coin a phrase. According to David's friend Alphonse (Phonse in the local shorthand, and played by Andy Jones, a Newfoundland writer/actor/comic) it's because David hasn't done a proper marketing job, because certainly he has the gourmet skills, as well as a fabulous wine cellar. To revive interest in the restaurant, Phonse hatches (almost literally) a scheme to attract bird-watchers to the area by claiming a sighting of a duck long thought to have been extinct - putatively the "rare bird" of the title, although one suspects that the real "rare birds" are Phonse and David themselves.

(Most Newfoundlanders, and a few others, will know that the Great Auk, the bird for which David's restaurant is named, was hunted to extinction on the Newfoundland coast more than a century ago.)

There are several comic sub-plots in the film, the best of which is Phonse's RSV, the "recreational submarine vehicle" that he has constructed in his shed and which he recruits David to assist him in dive-testing. There is another sub-plot about a 26-pound cache of cocaine that Phonse has found on the shore, and yet another about a bizarre lighting invention from a Bulgarian scientist who was once Phonse's partner. The local RCMP also get into the picture, doing a sort of Atlantic-coast Keystone Kops routine. It's a fragile effort and totally silly, but no-one should really mind seeing Canada's finest portrayed as something like the back-ends of their justly famous steeds for the brief time they're on screen.

The love interest in the film, Alice, who is introduced to the married but separated David by Phonse, is played by the talented and lovely Molly Parker ("Sunshine", and the soon to be released "Hoffman"). She and William Hurt generate very good chemistry, and I came away wishing that the film had made much more of them than it did. (Interestingly, Hurt and Parker were both in "Sunshine", a Canadian co-production, although they never appear on-screen together.)

The story-line of "Rare Birds" is slight enough, and the dialogue is a bit wanting. So, to a very large degree, the film is carried by the hugely talented and accomplished Hurt. He does a kind of "loaves and fishes" miracle with the material at hand, making a near-banquet out of a box-lunch. For the other principals, I was left with the sense that, talented though Andy Jones certainly is, film is not really his medium, although he does well enough. In Molly Parker's case, I didn't feel that she had quite enough opportunity to shine, but when she does have the chance, she is, as always, incandescent.

As expected, the Newfoundland topography, a Rock within a sometimes violent sea, takes a starring role. The rugged landscape, the roiling surf hurling itself against the jagged shore-line, is irresistible. Of course, I'm from the place, and almost any glimpse of the island sets my heart thumping. But - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!! - will somebody, someday, make a film in Newfoundland that depicts a sunny day. The winters there are long and harsh, spring is not much more than a fond hope, the summers are almost always too short, and the wind blows a great deal of the time. But the sun really does shine, and quite a lot of the time, in all four - alright, three-and-one-half - seasons. Really, it does. You have my word on it. It would be so nice to see a film that actually showed that. Just once.

Go see "Rare Birds". It's worth it, and it's good, clean fun.