Birds of America (2008)

Birds of America focus on a very dysfunctional family. With a father suicide and a mother running away, Morrie (Matthew Perry) is left raising his 7 year old sister Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) and 11 year old brother Jay (Ben Foster) at the age of 18. We come into their life fifteen years later when circumstance brings both siblings back to their childhood home where Morrie now lives with his wife Betty (Lauren Graham). Two other supporting roles are their neighbors Laura (Hillary Swank) and Paul (Gary Wilmes).


Morrie and Betty lives according to their plan, which includes kissing up to their neighbors as Paul got an important role at the University where Morrie teaches and he's his eyes set at tenure there. They are also holding out on making children until tenure, while Betty is getting inpatient.

The return of the two more free-spirited siblings shakes up life as the couple knew it, but it's really not a lot happening you can't predict. That's also the movies huge downfall as its choices can be seen a mile coming. Some good scenes and some interesting scenes, but mostly recycled material we've seen before.

Perry, Foster and Goodwin all delivers good acting performances. I'm less impressed by Graham, but her part really wasn't very interesting either. The same can be said about both the acting and roles of the neighbors, but especially Swank feels like a wasted actress on such a forgettable part. I take from this movie another confirmation of Perry's and Foster's skills, and note Goodwin as a name I hope to see more from in the time to come. I'm on the other hand not in a hurry to see more from writer Elyse Friedman or director Craig Lucas.