Blackbird (Roger Michell 2019) USA

Review by T Romaine. Viewed at AFI Fest 2019.

The opening scene is of the story’s male lead opening a door to the balcony of an upper class home. Then the film cuts away to him in the arboretum feeding chickens and collecting cherry tomatoes off the vine. He is an emotionally stable and mature father and husband, Paul (played by Sam Niell).  It is a calm, quiet and rural setting where the couple live in solitude without other homes nearby. The first sign of tension is the family matriarch, Lily (played by Susan Sarandon), as she is seen inhaling oxygen. She appears ill and struggling for strength to get ready for company arriving. She is fiercely independent and stubborn. She does not want assistance doing basic things like getting dressed, walking or holding glasses. Clearly she is losing motor skills but the film never names what her terminal illness is. We learn that the couple’s adult children, teen grandchild, their significant others and Lily’s best friend are visiting to say goodbye. Lily has decided to end her life and not face immobility and pain from the decompensation of her body.

The film is reminiscent of other family dramas, with characters dealing with loss and unspoken grudges, such as Rachel Getting Marred (Jonathan Demme 2008), The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach 2005) and The Descendants (Alexander Payne 2011).

Lily has planned for a final weekend with her family before the end. When explaining to the family, Paul says “This is the house she built. This is where she wants it to happen”. We learn that Lily and Paul started with very little and the film implies that Lily became a successful architect and Paul is a doctor. Today they are a well off, bourgeois couple. This wealth and privilege gives this family access to manage her illness any way they choose. They live in a state where assisted suicide is illegal but have made a plan that will likely not put Paul in any legal jeopardy.

One of the most honest characters is the forthcoming and direct grandson Jonathan (played by Anson Boon). He asks what the audience want to know and says what the audience wants to say. When he is alone with his Grandfather in the arboretum he blatantly asks about Lily’s suicide plan. Later that evening, Lily directs the family to have Christmas dinner and put up a tree. The succession of planned events makes the audience ponder how they might chose to spend their last days.

She gives everyone sentimental gifts and tells Jonathan that he must spend his inheritance on “hookers and blow”. He asks her if she has any words of wisdom to share and she retorts that is a cliche about old or dying people. Then she answers, “handwritten thank you notes and being on time doesn’t hurt”. Her mothering style has been about control and pretense which has created conflict with her children. At Christmas dinner, Paul offers Jonathan a glass of wine and his mother Jennifer (played by Kate Winslet) forbids it saying that drinking underage “is illegal” and Jonathan snaps back “so is killing Grandma”.

Later we learn a painful secret about Lily’s unstable, lesbian daughter Anna (played by Mia Wasikowska). The standout performance in the film is by Bex Taylor-Klaus, who plays Anna’s lesbian girlfriend Chris, although her character is disappointingly underdeveloped and she is present only to serve the other character’s needs. It will be interesting to follow her career.

The film tells a familiar story about death and dying from the perspective of very entitled and educated people. The scenery, clothes and setting are posh and enviable. The story follows a predictable trajectory of melodrama from the conflicts between parents/children and also husbands/ wives or romantic partners. With the musical score the audience gets teared up and laughs on cue. There is no subtlety or subtext. The conflicts are simple and expressed then concluded for the next scene. It is a nicely wrapped present that seems empty inside. Life is not as simplistic as presented in this story and an opportunity is lost to push the audience to deeper places.