Film festivals like the quirky and unusual so bear in mind that Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) opened the 2014 Venice Festival. Set backstage at the St James Theatre on Broadway, Birdman follows the rehearsals of a new play through previews to first night. Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a Hollywood actor who has experienced great stardom and celebrity as the genre hero Birdman. Two decades after this success he is attempting to reinvent himself and has financed and adapted Raymond Carver’s short story What we talk about when we talk about love for the stage.
Unfortunately Riggan’s years as a superhero have left him believing he has superpowers. With the power of cgi writer/director Alejandro González Inarritu occasionally brings these powers to life. Riggan appears to be able to levitate, fly and make things move without touching them. His years as Birdman have also left him with the belief that he can hear the old superhero standing behind him. Birdman offers him advice and abuse, like an internal monologue voiced by computer Alpha 60 from Alphaville.
As the play progresses, actors change and rehearsals continue, Riggan interacts with a lover, daughter, ex-wife and fellow star Mike Shiner – Edward Norton enjoying this role as an actor so obsessed with the truth and being in the moment that he can only enjoy sex on stage. The issues covered in Carver’s play are reflected by some of those in Riggan’s life, although the stage production has less flying around Manhattan.
Shot in long takes with camera movements rather than cuts the film builds a claustrophobic atmosphere in the narrow back-stage corridors of the old theatre. The power of critics and the relationship between theatre and cinema all get an examination but the magical elements take away from the underlying meditation on aging and regrets. There are some humorous moments although a lot of them require watching men in or out of white underpants.
References toTwitter and Facebook are thrown into the mix to show that what counts as success has changed since Riggan’s Birdman movies, but Birdman is overlong, with an off-putting drummed soundtrack and some overlapping, hard to pick up dialogue. The shooting method is clever and gives the impression the film is one long shot, and it does provoke some questions about motivation, art and celebrity. Some of Riggan’s issues are relevant to the rest of us and Keaton’s performance is sincere but 119 minutes is too long to spend backstage with the problems of an ageing Hollywood star.
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