Movie review: The Starling is wholly inappropriate, why did no one shout 'stop'?
The Starling stars Chris O'Dowd and Melissa McCarthy
★★☆☆☆
Melissa McCarthy proved herself a superb dramatic actress in 2018’s , but (12A), despite offering even more scope to broaden her range, is a fluffed opportunity. The problem is not McCarthy’s, who stars as Lilly Maynard, whose infant daughter died of cot death a year before the story opens.
Stumbling through life in a fog of despair, Lilly is just about coping; confined to a psychiatric hospital, her husband Jack (Chris O’Dowd) has entirely given up on trying to deal with the pain, and is counting down the days until blessed oblivion finally arrives.
Into this heart-breaking scenario comes the eponymous feathered pest, who takes up residence in a tree beside Lilly’s house and attacks her every time she leaves the house.
Advised to consult with the psychiatrist Larry Fine (Kevin Kline), Lilly discovers that Larry has abandoned psychiatry to become a vet, which is the point at which the story, already veering wildly between tragedy and slapstick comedy, finally tips over into the realms of the ridiculous.
Why nobody shouted ‘Stop!’ — and preferably at screenwriter Matt Harris — is the most bizarre thing about this film: the director, Theodore Melfi, has previously helmed the excellent (2016) and the enjoyably offbeat (2014), while McCarthy herself should surely have realised that the blend of wacky comedy and soul-searing agony was wholly inappropriate.
Chris O’Dowd, who — mercifully — isn’t obliged to leaven his anguish with pratfalls, just about escapes with his dignity intact as he portrays Jack as an emotional vacuum who hides away from the world, but Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Kline are left twisting in the wind by a script and a director that are tonally deaf. (Netflix)
Somebody should have shouted stop.
