The Big Year: Longing Life Lessons

I’m pleased to announce that Hollywood is still capable of churning out PG-rated, moderately funny and wistful comedies for adults. I have always disagreed with the modern notion that comedy must be R-rated, raunchy, and sensationalized in order to be funny and enjoyable. Call me old-fashioned and prudish, but I skipped Superbad, Bridesmaids, and anything else that Judd Apatow directed or helped to produce.

But let me warn you, it can be more wistful than funny, and the movie at times overreaches in order to teach the audience important life lessons.

In this movie, three men compete to detect as many species of birds in one year. Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson), the ultra-competitive defending champion, puts on hold his contractor job and hot wife to top his own record of 732 species. Stu Preissler (Steve Martin), a high-powered executive, sets aside work for once to pursue his passion for birds. And finally, Brad Harris (Jack Black) is a schlubby nice guy who has a gift for detecting bird calls and suffers from his dreary office job, marital failure, and tumultuous relationship with his father, Raymond (Brian Dennehy). Brad’s voiceover knits together the obstacles, journeys, and conflicts these men face as they set aside their personal lives to sight these birds. 

Mirroring the migratory behavior of birds and their fallout, these birders gravitate towards areas ravaged by hurricanes and El Nino. As with any fanatics and convention-goers, these birders travel across the nation and congregate in order to track down different species. To say they are obsessed would be an understatement. They even brave nauseating ships, turbulent flights, and helicopters, hike untamed territories, and bunk in rat-infested shacks while trailing these birds.

While this appears ridiculous and downright satirical, the movie does make some interesting commentary, particularly on the American consciousness of competition and work ethic. While people like Bostick ruthlessly outsmart and undermine competitors, the friendship of Stu and Brad and even the love-line between Brad and female birder Ellie (Rashida Jones) overshadows rogue behavior and show that hobbies can create a collective bonding experience. For once, it seems that the individualist, competitive American isn’t compatible with a highly interpersonal, connected world.

The movie also questions the American Protestant work ethic, the emphasis on the grindstone over leisure. Raymond, who has worked the same old boring job for forty years, blames Brad’s lack of commitment for his mediocre life. As stilted as this may be, only Raymond’s near-fatal heart attack can bring father and son together. Nevertheless, the close-up between Brad and Raymond passionately discussing his favorite birds to his father beautifully conveys that his father can stop denigrating him because Brad is finally happy with himself. Perhaps there’s nothing more healing than finding pleasure in even the smallest things, rather than pinpointing all hopes on a sophisticated life plan. 

Furthermore, obsessing over hobbies and work is only meaningful if you have someone to share that with, whether it be your friends, family, or mentor. The movie wants us to identify with its protagonist, Brad and to absolutely scorn the cocky antagonist, Bostick. Bostick allows himself to be displaced by his passions and job–he birds to compete, and he is a contractor by trade. He’s the kind of guy who would leave a girl at the altar to track down a snowy owl. These kinds of men are left to eat alone in Chinese restaurants on Christmas Eve, and that’s basically what happens to Bostick. On the other hand, Stu manages to fit in family dinners and see his grandson while doing the Big Year. The movie rather didactically illuminates which lifestyle is preferable and which one we should condemn, but I won’t dispute these “lessons.” Brad’s statement encapsulates this idea: “[Bostick] got more birds, but we got more everything.”

If shot poorly, this movie could have felt like a laundry list of different bird sightings. However, it engages viewers with aerial shots of beautiful scenery, including the George Washington National Forest and the Alaskan tundra of Attu with some “pump-inducing” music (I guess Viva La Vida did it for me) in the background. Furthermore, the close-up of rare bird species compel us to feel Brad and Stu’s utter enthrallment. It just felt so refreshing compared to the comedies set in big commercial cities like New York and Boston that often overshadow these natural gems. Even I, a complete indoors nerd, felt like backpacking in some obscure, pristine region.

The casting was rather predictable except for Wilson’s sly, cunning, ultra-competitive Bostick. He manages to slightly tweak his chill, comedic, all-American persona for this role. Jack Black again reprises his previous role as the good guy who happens to be down on his luck, and he’s good at that. All of the family members were rather one-dimensional and uninteresting, except Brad’s parents. Dianne Wiest definitely brings a heartwarming dimension to this wild bird chase as the mother who returns to travel agency to sponsor her floundering son.

So okay, maybe I read too deeply into this movie (this is what my English classes have trained me to do), and it’s really just harmless, heart-warming fluff that families, friends, and movie dates. It may not be the best comedy out there, but it definitely delivers some laughs while preparing us for heartwarming fuzzies of the holiday season. .