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Film: Broken Bird
Year: 2024
Director: Joanne Mitchell
Writer: Dominic Brunt
Starring: Rebecca Calder, Jay Taylor and Jessica Yemi
Review:
This is a film I got see via screener thanks to Keir from Strike Media. It looks like this played at FrightFest over in the United Kingdom where I'm guessing it made its premiere. I'll be honest, outside of the title, the information that I shared here and then confirming it was horror, I came into seeing this blind.
Synopsis: Sybil (Rebecca Calder) works as an undertaker. It's a lonely job, with a few perks so she takes solace where she can.
We start this with a little girl finding a dead bird on the ground. She picks it up, puts it on her desk and then we see her preparing it. I figured she was doing a rough form of taxidermy. It seems that this girl grows up to be Sybil Chamberlain. We see her as an adult while driving. She hits an animal, then backs over it. She goes out for us to see it was a fox. We then see her cover it in a blanket and pick it up. She makes the comment that she's going to be late. We see that she recites poetry at an open mic night.
Another character we meet runs a local mortuary, Mr. Thomas (James Fleet). He meets Sybil who is looking for work and he hires her. She inquires about a locked room that he has. He informs her not to worry about it, but it does have refrigeration.
We then meet a police officer who is struggling named Helen (Jessica Yemi). She is put on leave as there seemed to be a tragic event in her life that she hasn't recovered from. Her boss knows she's drinking on the job and he cannot allow it. What we see is that this involved her son. There was an incident where she scolded him for knocking over milk. That is just the start of her guilt.
Then the last character we meet is Mark (Jay Taylor). He is seeing Tina (Jelena Moore). Sybil meets him at a museum where we see that she daydreams about different things. It’s love at first sight for her. That gets dashed when she realizes he has a girlfriend. Things take a dark turn when he suffers an accident. All these characters get tangled together and the deeper we get into the truth, the stranger things become.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this was a hard film to settle into. I'll be honest, part of it is that this is from the United Kingdom and I didn't have subtitles. The accents were a bit difficult, but I did adjust. This sucked me in with the story and as things got revealed, it kept me guessing until the end. I will credit it for that. The last thing I'll include here is that this feels like a dark variation on something like Amélie.
Now that I've set that up, what works for me is that we get a solid group of characters that we're following. Not only that, but this also gives you parts of their character or introduces a story element, then it shifts to someone else. I picked up early on that they were going to all connected, not necessarily in ways you'd expect. Seeing how they fit together is great and like I said, it goes into dark places. I did want to commend the editing here. It does take time to settle in, but once it does. I recommend going along for the ride.
I'll also then say that this is a character study of the players involved. Something else to give credit to is that not everyone is as important as it sets up in the beginning. That wasn't something that I was expecting to be honest. To start breaking down characters, first is Sybil. She seems mousey in the beginning. The more we see her, the more we see that she's broken. Her family died in an accident when she was young. She is obsessed with death. She also just wants her happy ending. There are different things that break her façade and we also see she does depraved things. Credit to Calder for her performance.
We then see her interactions with Mr. Thomas, who hires her. He sees and finds her to be a great worker, to the point that due to his age, he's considering promoting her already. This is positive. There are allusions to a dark secret he's harboring and it had me guessing until right before it was revealed. Good on the movie there. Fleet was good in his portrayal there. We also develop more of the Sybil character through Mark and Tina. It is there that we see how deep her psychosis goes. Both Taylor and Moore were also good in their roles. There's also a great reveal with Tina and a guy Sybil sees her with. That adds to the gut punch.
Then the last character to bring up here is Helen. We know that she's struggling with drinking. It feels like the movie doesn't want us to like her. She does things that make me cringe. The more we learn about this, the more we see that what she's struggling with is something that most everyone would be. Her connection to Sybil was also interesting. This leads to the climax and resolution as well. I'll also say that Yemi was good in her portrayal as well.
I'll say here that the rest of the cast was solid for what was needed in support. The best thing is seeing people in the delusions that Sybil lives in. I'll then just finish out with filmmaking. I thought this was well-made. The cinematography and framing of shots were good. What is great here is how Sybil's fantasies seem happy where the world she lives in is drabber. That's a good touch, especially at the climax. The limited effects that we got were good as well. I'll also say that the soundtrack suited what was needed.
In conclusion, this was a film that once I settled into where the story was taking me, I was there for it. It reminds me of a dark variation on Amélie. This is a character study and seeing how this group are intertwined. The acting is good across the board. I thought how this was crafted was solid with the filmmaking aspects. The cinematography and framing lead the way there. My biggest issue was just needing subtitles as I think I missed things. If what I said sounds good, I'd recommend giving this a watch.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10