The Starling (2021)

Directed by Theodore Melfi. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, Kevin Kline, Kimberly Quinn, Timothy Olyphant, Skyler Gisondo, Rosalind Chao, Loretta Devine, Ravi Kapoor, Daveed Diggs. [PG-13]

Dreadfully misguided drivel awkwardly attempts to jerk tears and warm hearts (in that order), but misses the mark on both counts so badly it’s almost impressive. In the aftermath of their infant child’s death, McCarthy and O’Dowd are separated by a two-hour drive—she’s still at home, clearing out old furniture/memories, and he’s dealing with his issues at a mental hospital. The grieving mother turns to a psychiatrist-turned-veterinarian (Kline) for unconventional counsel, and tackles a gardening project in her yard, but is hampered by a heavy-handedly symbolic pest in the form of a starling that’s chosen her tree for its nesting spot. Bucketloads of bathos, quirky supporting characters, cloying song selections, and tone-deaf emotional crescendos are relentlessly forced down the viewers’ throats while the filmmakers struggle to provide a single moment—serious, humorous, or the schizophrenic transitions between—that doesn’t reek of phoniness. The actors seem to have good grasps on the bogus characters they have to play, but are helpless in the face of so many stunningly bad choices made by screenwriter Matt Harris (like suggesting that depression can simply be scolded away) and director Melfi (like inserting a “CGI bird chase” near the beginning that feels lifted from a second-rate animated kids’ movie). Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

17/100