Lady Bird – Movie Review
Released: 2017
Director: Greta Gerwig
Writer: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts
I had been anticipating the release of Lady Bird for some time now. The trailer looked funny, it seemed to be an interesting film. The last Saoirse Ronan movie I saw was Brooklyn, which was good, but just good. I went to Lady Bird expecting something, wow but I have outlined my thoughts on Lady Bird with the review.
Christine McPherson likes to be called “Lady Bird”, it is her given name, given to her by herself.
Lady Bird is the story of Christine’s senior year of high school. The Story portrays the relationship she has with her mother, her friends, the friends she wants to be best friends with, male friends, her siblings and her dad. It also deals with the fact that she is going to school in a strict Catholic educational system, which she seems not to believe in. Overall, it is a multi-faceted film as it seems to try and deal with all these relationships at the same time and for me, I think the movie somewhat loses itself in trying to cater for all the people in her life.
Some of the funniest and interesting scenes are those she has with her mother, played by the fantastic Laurie Metcalf (who you may know as being Sheldon Cooper’s mum in The Big Bang Theory). There is a love-hate relationship there, with her mum being overly critical while ensuring the family needs are looked after. Lady Bird wants to go to an expensive and sophisticated college on the East Coast such as Yale or Harvard. Her mum thinks she is not good enough and that the expense would be wasted. Perhaps her route might be community college, prison and then back to college, he mum suggests. (At which point Lady Bird decides to leave the moving car…). I would have loved to have seen more of the relationship with the mother.
All during the film Lady Bird is all about trying to achieve greatness as she grows up, but at every attempt, you see her mistakes. She chooses the wrong friends, tries the wrong drinks and tells the wrong lies.
“Overly Bitty as a Movie – Not Coherent”
The film seems more like a load of scenes put together than a flowing movie with a beginning, middle and end. The story itself does not make for a fantastic movie – it is good, but by no means, a Best Picture candidate. However, I think it will appeal to an audience who can identify with it. Saoirse Ronan is very good as Lady Bird but I walked away thinking, what was all the hype about the movie – not 5 stars but a strong 4 star.
In conclusion, Lady Bird is a very enjoyable movie to go and see. I thought it would not be one which I would watch again – however, having watched the trailer again and having seen the movie, there is something charming about the movie. There are elements to it which are really nice, it is very emotional in parts … so, not all bad!
Lady Bird, Overall Movie Rating: 81% (4/5 stars)
