The Big Year

With the lead cast consisting of Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black, you would think The Big Year will be just another slapstick comedy with little to no story and cheap laughs. You would be wrong.

The Big Year is beautiful. Three men of different ages cross paths in their interest for birding; spotting as many birds as one can in one year.

But the film isn't really about "birding", it shows us life through three different views and the challenges life can bring and the choices that everyone has to make.

The Big Year is not a movie you will sit through laughing out loud, but you will be smiling for the better part of the 100 minutes.

One of the most underrated movies of 2011, The Big Year suffered from lack of promotion and a misleading poster and trailer.

Do yourself a favor, and watch this, you will not regret it!

I confess that I cannot represent the following as an entirely objective, nor representative assessment of the quality of "The Big Year". How often does one of the early scenes in a film almost identically replicate an incident in the viewer's life? My introduction to the peculiar world of birding was in the late 1990s at Patagonia State Park in Southern Arizona. We had unsuspectingly selected a camping location that was noted for hosting an enormous variety of birds, and were awakened one morning by a small army of odd looking characters hell-bent on confirming the first reported sighting of the Nutting flycatcher in the United States in several decades. Out of curiosity we joined the chase, and the rest is family history, eerily duplicated by the makers of this film. What followed were many years of exercise, pleasure and reward for one of life's most interesting avocations.

So... how could I not enjoy this fine effort at mixing the allure of this strange "sport" with a thoughtful exploration of human motivation and conflicted choices. I can understand why the faithful fans of Black, Martin and Wilson might be disappointed with this production. But I, for one, have grown infinitely weary of too many superficial, sophomoric attempts at humor through these three capable actors. I was encouraged to see the restraint and depth that they could bring to these characters which provided the necessary credibility for this otherwise improbable tale. The film maintains a near perfect balance of humor, drama, and suspense in a well paced, engaging and uplifting plot. The spectacular photography of an abundance of aesthetically appealing locations is an added bonus.

I count it a big plus when I can walk out of the movie with that "feel good" elation that comes from a pleasant and interesting evening's entertainment. My heart said give it an eight or nine, but my never-ending quest for realistic objectivity resulted in the understated seven. Unless you are of the set that requires demolition derbies and frat humor for your entertainment, go see it. You'll have a good time.

In the Big Year, bird-watching ("birding" for those serious about the activity) takes a beautiful backdrop to the story of three men in different stages of life that are all struggling with priorities and what is important in life. Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson all do a great job as lead actors and come across as real bird lovers.

The settings are incredible - taking viewers from Attu Island in the Aleutians to Brownsville, Texas, and everywhere in between. The race to find birds results in many humorous moments between the three competitors as they scour North America in search of rare bird sightings and compete to be the world's best birder.

Steve Martin does a wonderful job as a man on the verge of retirement, who is struggling to let go of his career. His long-time dream to spend a year birding helps him understand what is important in life. Steve's character develops a father-like relationship with Jack Black's aimless computer programmer whose passion is birds. Steve's character provides fatherly guidance and support that helps Jack Black's character move forward with his life and relationships.

Owen Wilson is great as the obsessed world's greatest birder, who does everything that he can to stop his challengers - Steve Martin & Jack Black. The obsession and drive of Owen's character draws anger, jealousy, and respect from his competitors and other birders. Several supporting actors providing some funny moments with their hatred of Owen.

Overall, Big Year is a funny and heart-warming movie that will make you think about your own priorities and dreams...and maybe grab some binoculars and search out some birds.

I enjoyed this film. Jack Black can actually act. Who knew? And Steve Martin hasn't done anything this appealing since "Shopgirl." It's got some funny moments, and at least two laugh-out-loud moments, but mostly it's a movie with heart. And Black's character will tug at yours a little. Beautifully shot and sharply edited. Lovely scenery and wonderful music. I hope this is still in theaters at Thanksgiving, because it would be the perfect family outing (after devouring the Butterball species). The audience in my theater enjoyed it and some even applauded at the end. Eight is an honest vote, though I was tempted to give it a nine.

I thought it was refreshing that this was one movie that DIDN'T have much conflict (aside from them going after Owen Wilson's character, that is). Throw in too much conflict in a birding movie, and you quickly tip right over into caricature. It's not the most ruthless pursuit, after all. This stayed the right side of the line.

Interesting characters should always keep the audience engaged, whether the stakes are particularly high, or not.

If you have too many 'moments', then you have formula, and a certain number of beats to be hit, instead of just a story.

I do agree that Steve Martin's character needed a little more shift in his circumstances, from the beginning to where he found himself at the end, but the other two leads had plenty of revelation in their lives - they just didn't make an undue fuss about it.

I didn't expect a birding movie to rock my world in terms of excitement… but the characters were sympathetic and pleasant, which is not something you can say about a lot of modern comedy.