Set in a sprawling modern masterpiece of a beach house on the East Coast, Blackbird unfolds like a play but in fact is based on a 2014 Danish film with an equally impenetrable title, Silent Heart.
Susan Sarandon plays Lily, who is fighting a losing battle against ALS, over the course of one weekend in New England. Her husband is warm, supportive physician Paul (the stalwart Sam Neill), and the two of them are expecting three carloads of guests: the couple’s two adult daughters and the latters’ partners, plus Lily’s best friend since college, Liz (the wonderful Lindsay Duncan, Birdman).
The film’s director is the rightly respected Roger Michell (Notting Hill; My Cousin Rachel), which accounts for the A-list cast. Kate Winslet has the thankless role of older daughter Jennifer, who seems grossly insensitive to everyone else’s feelings, including those of her husband, Michael (Rainn Wilson). Mia Wasikowska has the meatier part as younger sister Anna, a lesbian with an on-again, off-again lover (Bex Taylor-Klaus, Dumplin’) and a deep well of anxieties. Common sense seems to have skipped a generation, as teenage grandson Jonathan (Anson Boon, 1917), is more stable and self-aware than either his parents or his aunt.
The various confessions and explosions are not especially original, but neither are they overplayed, so the story unfolds with a palpable humanity. It’s the kind of movie that earns respect and engagement without ever bowling you over with its emotional power. Since the screenplay could easily have collapsed into weepy melodrama, it’s a credit to Michell that it builds credibly to its bittersweet conclusion with a sympathetic realism that’s greater than the sum of its recycled parts.
In troubled times, pending death may not be the easiest sell, but Sarandon and most of her co-stars give such well-crafted, unshowy performances that the film is oddly comforting. It suggests even tragedy can impose some order on our personal connections — and that’s a message worth contemplating.
Available to rent starting Sept. 18 via Amazon Video, iTunes and other streaming platforms
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