October 28, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Marc Forster
Some language in French and German with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in 1940s France and in 2020s New York City, the dramatic film “White Bird” (based on the graphic novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A French Jewish grandmother tells her 15-year-old American grandson the story of when she was hidden from Nazis by a compassionate gentile family during World War II in France.
Culture Audience: “White Bird” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the novel on which the movie is based, the movie’s headliners, and stories of about the Holocaust.
“White Bird” might get some comparisons to “The Diary of Anne Frank,” but “White Bird” is a fictional story that won’t be considered a classic. This dramatic film has good performances from the principal cast, despite the movie’s treacly tone and drab dialogue. Overall, the message of “White Bird”—showing kindness and bravery when society becomes consumed by hate—transcends any noticeable flaws in the movie.
Directed by Marc Forster and written by Mark Bomback, “White Bird” is based on R.J. Palacio’s 2019 graphic novel of the same name. The “White Bird” novel was also turned into a regular novel that was published in 2023, the year that the “White Bird” movie was originally going to be released. After several delays, the “White Bird” movie was released in 2024.
The “White Bird” movie has two different timelines: The first timeline is in 2020s New York City. The second timeline is in 1940s France and is depicted in flashback scenes told through the memory of one of the story’s main characters. (“White Bird” was actually filmed in Prague, Czech Republic.)
In 2020s New York City, 15-year-old Julian Albans (played by Bryce Gheisar) is a new student at an elite prep school called Yates Academy. He is introverted and a little socially awkward. On his first day at Yates Academy, Julian is invited by a fellow student named Rahmiya (played by Priya Ghotane) to join the school’s social justice club. Rahmiya also invites Julian to sit with her at the same table for lunch. Julian politely declines to join the social justice club because he doesn’t seem to want to get involved in any political issues.
A stuck-up student named Dillon (played by Teagan Booth) introduces himself to Julian while Julian is sitting with Rahmiya. Dillon says Julian’s mother plays tennis wth Dillon’s mother, who told Dillon to protectively “look out for” Julian and befriend him. Dillon rudely tells Julian: “This is the loser table.” Dillon then says that Julian should have lunch with Dillon and his friends on the following day.
At Julian’s home, a family member makes a surprise visit: Julian’s French grandmother Sara Blum (played by Helen Mirren), who has arrived from Paris. Julian and Sara have not seen each other for years. Sara offers Julian a glass of wine, but he declines and reminds her that he’s too young to legally drink alcohol.
Julian tells Sara about how he’s a new student at Yates Academy because he was expelled from a previous school for being cruel to another boy. (This is in reference to Julian being a character in the 2017 movie “Wonder,” which is also based on a Palacio novel.) Julian says he has learned to be “normal,” which Julian defines as not being cruel or nice but just “minding your own business.” Sara looks slightly appalled that this is Julian’s definition of being “normal,” so she says she is going to tell him what happened to her when she was a child in France during the Nazi occupation of the 1940s.
Most of the movie consists of Sara’s childhood story told as flashbacks, beginning when Sara (played by Laura Hudeckova) was 5 and 8 years old. Sara describes her childhood before the Nazi occupation as happy and idyllic. She was an only child in a loving, middle-class household in the village of Aubervilliers-Aux-Bois.
Her happily married parents were surgeon Max Blum (played by Ishai Golan) and math teacher Rose Blum (played by Olivia Ross), who would take her on picnic trips. These picnics are Sara’s most treasured memories of Sara’s childhood, she tells Julian. Sara comments, “I was a bit spoiled, but I didn’t see it that way.”
But trouble began brewing for Jewish people in their community when the Nazis occupied France in 1940. The Nazi persecution of Jewish people began gradually. First, Jewish people began to lose their jobs and financial freedoms. (Nazis seized bank accounts of Jewish people.)
Then, Jewish people (who were often identified by neighbors who were paid to identify Jews) were rounded up by Nazis and usually separated from family members. Jewish people were then sent to be imprisoned, starved, tortured, and usually murdered in what the world now knows were death camps during this Holocaust. The Holocaust became a central cause during World War II.
At the beginnng of the Nazi occupation in France, teenage Sara (played by Ariella Glaser) is a student at a co-ed high school named École Lafayette, where most of the students are not Jewish. Her two best friends are “popular girls” in the school: Mariann (played by Selma Kaymakci) and Sophie (played by Mia Kadlecova), who are really “mean girls.” This clique and other students at the school sometimes bully a disabled student named Julien Beaumier (played by Orlando Schwerdt), who uses a cane to walk.
Other student bullies at the school are cruel Vincent (played by Jem Matthews) and his two sidekicks Jerome (played by Jordan Cramond) and Henri (played Yelisey Kazakevich). These bullies have given Julien the insulting nickname Tourteau (which means “crab” in French) because they think he walks like a crab sea creature. Sara doesn’t participate in the bullying of Julien, but she doesn’t do anything to stop it either. She can also sense that Julien has a crush on her.
Sara has a talent for drawing. And one day in a classroom, one of her teachers notices an illustration that Sara has made of a white bird. The teacher advises Sara: “A gift is a treasure. Never stop drawing, Sara.”
Sara first begins to suspect that something wrong is happening in the community when her mother Rose announces during dinner one evening that she was abruptly fired from her job for no credible reason. Sara’s father Max has been hearing stories about Jewish people in France being rounded up by Nazis and disappearing. Max thinks Rose was fired because she’s Jewish. He’s alarmed enough to suggest that the family flee as soon as possible to a nation that isn’t occupied by Nazis.
Rose is adamantly against the idea. She thinks what is happening with the Nazi occupation will eventually subside and go away. Rose says she doesn’t want to uproot her life to move to another country. And she doesn’t want to frighten Sara, so Rose scolds Max for even talking about their lives possibly being in danger in front of Sara.
Sara soon finds out that her father was correct about his fears. At school, she notices that she is beng treated differently for being Jewish. This bigotry then escalates until one day, Nazi soldiers show up at the school and take away all students, faculty and staff who are Jewish. Through a series of harrowing circumstances and actions, Sara manages to escape in the Mernuit forest nearby. The Nazi soldiers can’t find her, so they leave. It should come as no surprise that school bully Vincent becomes a Hitler youth informant for the Nazis.
The trailer for “White Bird” already reveals the essence of the story. Julien (who is an only child) comes to Sara’s rescue and brings her to his home to hide. Julien’s parents Jean Paul Beaumier (played by Jo Stone-Fewings) and Vivienne Beaumier (played by Gillian Anderson) show her kindness and compassion by deciding to hide Sara in a barn near the family house, which is somewhat isolated in the rural town of Dannevilliers. Jean Paul is a sewer worker, which is why Julien is familiar with the sewage tunnels in the area.
Sara learns through the Beaumier family that her parents were taken by the Nazis. Jean Paul and Vivien promise Sara that they will do everything they can to find out what happened to Sara’s parents and reunite Sara with her parents. During the time that Sara is hidden in the Beaumier family barn, she and Julien become closer. And their friendship turns into a chaste and tentative romance.
In an attic window, Sara can see a white bird that appears in a tree directly across from the window. This white bird becomes a symbol of hope and freedom for Sara, who does not know how long she will be sequestered and hidden and if she will ever see her parents again. Jean Paul and Vivien also put their lives at risk when the Beaumier family’s upstairs neighbors Monsieur Lafleur (played by Miroslav Taborsky) and Madame Lafleur (played by Zuzana Hodkova) begin to suspect the Beaumier family of hiding a Jewish person.
“White Bird” has some suspenseful moments but offers no real surprises. Perhaps the weakest part of the movie involves a risky trek through the snow-filled forest and an encounter with a wolf. The wolf looks very fake, with substandard visual effects. This phony-looking scene lowers the quality of the movie.
However, the acting in most of the movie is earnest, even if it at times it seems like the cast is trying too hard in their acting instead of performing more naturally. Mirren has played the role of a wise grandmother in so many other movies, what she does in “White Bird” is competent and effective but not anything extraordinary. The other principal cast members also give capable performances, with Glaser and Schwerdt performing in their roles quite nicely as teenagers who grow close and find love under these horrible circumstances.
“White Bird” could have used more authenticity in depicting French people. Most of the principal cast members are obviously not French and don’t have convincing French accents. It’s a noticeble discrepancy that doesn’t ruin the film but it’s an example of how “White Bird” lacks certain attention to realistic details that prevent it from being a completely well-made film. However, most viewers of “White Bird” will find something to appreciate about it so that it shouldn’t be considered a waste of time to watch this somewhat formulaic movie.
Lionsgate released “White Bird” in U.S. cinemas on October 4, 2024.
