A Birder's Guide to Everything

I saw this film at a benefit screening for the Wild Bird Fund in New York. It was the perfect audience for a story about bird lovers, but this smart, sad, funny film will appeal to everyone. The young cast is uniformly excellent, so the story of geeky misfits on a quest seems fresh rather than something you've seen a dozen times before. And unlike so many teenagers in movies, the writers and director treat these characters with respect. A boy who is still grieving for his mother, and coping with his father's imminent remarriage, corrals his friends -- and the obligatory cute girl tagging along -- into taking an impromptu camping trip, on the trail of a duck that may belong to a species long thought extinct. There are few surprises, but this intelligent well-crafted story doesn't need them.