I'm going to say a lot of nice things about this film. Before I do that, unfortunately, I've got to deal with Pretty Bird's ending. That's because it's really, truly, incredulously bad. This movie is like sleeping with a supermodel and then finding out she gave you crabs. It's like eating a sumptuous meal only to come to the last bite and sink your teeth into a human finger. It's like buying a 200,000 dollar sports car and then having its engine explode when you're pulling up your driveway. Writer/director Paul Schneider did a masterful job for most of this motion picture but then it's like he lost the last 15 pages of the script and then forgot those pages ever existed. This story doesn't conclude. It awkwardly ceases. Pretty Bird has the sort of ending that, if you care enough about how a story wraps up, will retroactively discredit and undermine everything you watch before it.
With that out of the way, I loved everything about this film except those last 5 minutes. There are a couple of award worthy performances from Billy Crudup and Paul Giamatti, a marvelous screenplay of interlocking personalities and new perspectives on stereotypes you think you understand, imagery that matches the uncomfortably human with the aspiring ideal and a soundtrack that's often affecting and never annoying. Slap an even halfway decent ending on this thing and it would clear the high jump of cinema greatness with 6 inches to spare.
Curtis Prentiss (Billy Crudup) is a handsome man with a dream to build a jet pack, which everyone in this story calls a rocket belt, and somehow make a lot of money with it. He enlists out of work aerospace engineer Rick Honeycutt (Paul Giamatti) to build it, with the whole operation funded by Curtis' old friend Kenny (David Hornsby). Now Kenny, though ably performed, is the same been there, done that closeted homosexual character that was cliché back in 1998. Curtis and Rick, though, are marvelously realized human beings of depth and dimension. Curtis' self-confidence and charm are not just compensation for his insecurity and self-loathing, they're a desperate attempt to cover for the fact that he doesn't connect with other people on an emotional level. The only person Rick seems emotionally connected to is his wife and you get the sense he doesn't know how that ever happened. Rick's a smart man who never bothered to learn how to interact with others and, before Curtis comes along, finds himself unemployed with nothing to show for all his brain power. Curtis is a man of ambition who drives a car that's far too old for any ambitious fellow.
And writer/director Schneider doesn't just create two compelling characters. He also does interesting things with them. There are two scenes in particular that are exceptional. One sees Curtis trying to talk a potential investor into putting his money into their rocket belt company. Curtis is the salesman/marketing guy who's usually the subject of derision in fiction and real life, but Schneider almost forces the audience to look at Curtis trying to persuade a disinterested moron into giving him money Curtis absolutely has to have. It's a job that requires Curtis to embrace humiliation and servility and you can't help but respect his willingness to take on the burden in order to play his role in rocket belt enterprise. The other scene is of Rick making love to his wife, smartly played by Elizabeth Marvel. They're going at it doggie style on their bed and at first, it appears like this is going to be the joyless coupling of two middle aged people in a joyless union. Rick even leans over to get a drink of water in mid fornication. But then Rick and his wife start to talk to each other. Not about sex but about the phone call Rick got from Curtis sounding him out about the rocket belt idea. As they talk you can see them both getting more and more into the sex as it blends together with the conversation as an expression of the bond between them. They're not fictional constructs having a great movie screw. They're a 20 year married couple having a pretty good Tuesday night boink. There's a bunch of moments like that throughout Pretty Bird that flesh out the characters without excessively complicating their nature.
On the way to its fershluggina finish, this is a delightful ride along the merry go round of three people caught up in a crazy dream. As long as you can put up with the disappointment at the end, you should definitely give this movie a look.
With that out of the way, I loved everything about this film except those last 5 minutes. There are a couple of award worthy performances from Billy Crudup and Paul Giamatti, a marvelous screenplay of interlocking personalities and new perspectives on stereotypes you think you understand, imagery that matches the uncomfortably human with the aspiring ideal and a soundtrack that's often affecting and never annoying. Slap an even halfway decent ending on this thing and it would clear the high jump of cinema greatness with 6 inches to spare.
Curtis Prentiss (Billy Crudup) is a handsome man with a dream to build a jet pack, which everyone in this story calls a rocket belt, and somehow make a lot of money with it. He enlists out of work aerospace engineer Rick Honeycutt (Paul Giamatti) to build it, with the whole operation funded by Curtis' old friend Kenny (David Hornsby). Now Kenny, though ably performed, is the same been there, done that closeted homosexual character that was cliché back in 1998. Curtis and Rick, though, are marvelously realized human beings of depth and dimension. Curtis' self-confidence and charm are not just compensation for his insecurity and self-loathing, they're a desperate attempt to cover for the fact that he doesn't connect with other people on an emotional level. The only person Rick seems emotionally connected to is his wife and you get the sense he doesn't know how that ever happened. Rick's a smart man who never bothered to learn how to interact with others and, before Curtis comes along, finds himself unemployed with nothing to show for all his brain power. Curtis is a man of ambition who drives a car that's far too old for any ambitious fellow.
And writer/director Schneider doesn't just create two compelling characters. He also does interesting things with them. There are two scenes in particular that are exceptional. One sees Curtis trying to talk a potential investor into putting his money into their rocket belt company. Curtis is the salesman/marketing guy who's usually the subject of derision in fiction and real life, but Schneider almost forces the audience to look at Curtis trying to persuade a disinterested moron into giving him money Curtis absolutely has to have. It's a job that requires Curtis to embrace humiliation and servility and you can't help but respect his willingness to take on the burden in order to play his role in rocket belt enterprise. The other scene is of Rick making love to his wife, smartly played by Elizabeth Marvel. They're going at it doggie style on their bed and at first, it appears like this is going to be the joyless coupling of two middle aged people in a joyless union. Rick even leans over to get a drink of water in mid fornication. But then Rick and his wife start to talk to each other. Not about sex but about the phone call Rick got from Curtis sounding him out about the rocket belt idea. As they talk you can see them both getting more and more into the sex as it blends together with the conversation as an expression of the bond between them. They're not fictional constructs having a great movie screw. They're a 20 year married couple having a pretty good Tuesday night boink. There's a bunch of moments like that throughout Pretty Bird that flesh out the characters without excessively complicating their nature.
On the way to its fershluggina finish, this is a delightful ride along the merry go round of three people caught up in a crazy dream. As long as you can put up with the disappointment at the end, you should definitely give this movie a look.