By: JWBM
When everything as we know it gets turned up on its head. Where people become infected and are compelled to take their own lives. Who becomes left must think on their feet and put aside emotions and comforts. What your next move is may determine your fate. Why this is all happening is the least important question now. We must move on.
A sudden epidemic occurs in the blink of an eye. People are dying; in droves. It's violent, it's chaotic, it's something few of us could have prepared for. As the bodies start to pile, survival mode kicks in with those left still standing. They must adapt to their new surroundings, while saying forever goodbye to most of their friends and loved ones.
This film acts like a well greased machine: having purpose, momentum, and, above all, a story to tell that's more about the human condition than it is about the specific horrors taking place. At fist, I thought the film was absent of emotional impact, with the performers following the script of a world-gone-to-hell scenario to the T. Sure, there was confusion, terror, and ferocity to get the blood flowing and to check to see if your senses are alive; I was searching for the kind of relatable feeling from someone reeling from having their existence beaten and nearly crushed beneath the soles of more powerful boots. Though, through a series of flashbacks, it gradually opens up and gives the characters room to grow and breathe. With all things considered of how the world decided to nearly end, it's even a luxury to plan your trip just down the block, never mind a spare moment to shed a tear, or open your eyes.
This isn't going to be exactly like, say, "The Road" with a predominately grim, head-in-the-sand backdrop, or even "The Walking Dead" with a focus on gore and attempting to one up itself with intensity. While this still deals with some drama and a lead character that has a sense of will power and survival to put individual feelings on the back burner and move on, it also has some more hope and less rough scenes mixed in without attempts to pull the carpet out from under you like your everyday horror film. It feels more a post-apocalyptic drama at times than it does a stab-stab-stab, shoot-shoot-shoot experience.
While this wasn't necessarily original if one broke the story down to the nitty-gritty, it's told in a unique, fluid way that manages to generate interest in what's going to happen, or where the characters are going to be taken. There are inconsistencies of how certain characters don't age or change physically, or even how this is all supposed to work at times. Is it scientific? Is it spiritual? Some do one thing, while other types do another. It wasn't as vague as "Vanishing on 7th Street" with people suddenly disappearing with next to no explanation, and a survival situation that left one empty on content. You still feel the shock and also grasp the basic outline, while employing some down-to-earth characteristics in between to ground it.
It's all about the fallout. I feel the main intention of "Bird Box" is to concentrate on change, along with survivalism and human development of the lead, Malorie, who didn't connect with society before things went down the tube. Sandra Bullock gives the character a give and take of a tough but emotionally stifled framework. There's a pounding heart somewhere in there; she just chooses to suppress it. How many of us rely on our phones, video games, and computers to fill voids? How many of us walk by people without a nod or a hello? How many of us drink ourselves stupid? How many of us would step over someone else to climb just another notch in the ladder of life? Take away all material things, comforts, and jobs. Now everywhere you look, humans have a collective interest and actual stakes. It's no longer this separate classism we pretend exists. But a unified drive to survive.
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Susanne Bier (In a Better World, After the Wedding)
Actors: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: Youtube trailer
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