MW32 This is a bad movie. I say this despite the fact that 1) I am a birdwatcher, 2) I think Wm. Hurt is a fine actor, 3) I love redheads, 4) the Newfoundland coast is quite striking, and 5) all the acting is generally pretty good. But actors can't do anything with a script this bad, and direction this witless.The movie really, really wants to be endearingly quirky, and it tries really, really hard to be quirky. The problem is, you can't force quirkiness; you have to be genuinely quirky. Forcing it just reveals the desperation behind a lame script with barely a laugh through the whole thing. (The one exception: "Who's going to come after us? The International Bird Police? The IBP?" Not an exact quote but close enough.) All the many subplots seem meant to give a kind of madcap atmosphere to the events, but none is fleshed out and they seem, to put it kindly, implausible.Telling is the fact that the writer didn't even bother to do basic research on birds and birdwatching. If you can't do the little things right, you aren't going to do the big things right.Hurt seemed faintly embarrassed at times to have to do what he was asked to do. The one single convincing scene in the movie---when Hurt silently rubs Parker's tired foot---was probably made up on the spot, because it's too real to be part of the rest of this contrived mess.

Andy (film-critic) Before every episode of that sci-fi classic television series X-Files there would be a promotional teaser that would claim, "All of your questions will be answered…" While you would watch the show, hoping that Mulder and Scully would finally find the answers to life, ultimately by the end, there would be more questions with very very few answers. It was the X-Files and over time we found ourselves used to no questions answered, and continued randomness coupled with confusion. Rare Birds seemed to be directed by an obvious X-Files fan, because here you have a film that is being marketed as the next Saving Grace or Waking Ned Devine, but oddly ends up like neither of these films and more like an unanswered episode of that alien miniseries. There are so many unanswered questions with implausible moments in Rare Birds that instead of focusing on the possible great and unique characters, our minds get muddled in the tangent, random, and completely unfocused story. Rare Birds could have been a comfortable film, it could have been easy, simple, and relaxed, but too many unfamiliar coincidences caused this "independent" film to flap poorly in the wind. Rare Birds will transform any avid bird enthusiast into a full-fledged hunter, shooting any bird that step within their path! What makes Rare Birds an interesting film (and keep in mind this is the only interesting part of the film) is that as you watch this film, you can pinpoint exactly where the muddling begins. There is an exact moment in this film where you can see that the director wanted to add so many different elements that they could not control them all. From the tangent cocaine story(causing unfocused elements in characters that are not developed), to the scientifically profound lights, to the recreational submarine, all the way to the supposed central focus of this film … the rare bird. One would think that the rare bird story, hoping to build a sorrowed character's life to be better, would be the central moment, the breaking moment, but instead the rare bird story is just as unfocused as the rest of the film. Early in the film Hurt and Jones go into Jones' basement and all of these stories collide together. Sadly, when we leave the basement, nothing has been straightened out. This is when our story, Rare Birds, begins to burn and into a slowly crashing direction. It is obvious that Edward Riche's novel has quite a bit more about the characters and their inner-voice explaining better situations. Alas, this did not transform well into a film version. Director Gunnarsson has way too much on the plate, and as we see in other films in the same vein, there becomes a fuzzy central focus. The rare bird story should have been the focus, but instead we attempt to learn about cocaine (and Dave's apparent addiction), the "Winnebago" group, and some random science light issue that is never fully explained thoroughly. Rare Birds starts strong, but ultimately fails because of the classic "buffet-line" issue. Gunnarsson should have followed the rules, "Take all you want, but eat all you take"!Occasionally with films that are as painful as Rare Birds, you sometimes get a great cast that overshadows the failing story. Hurt is awful. I have seen him in so many good films over the years, but this seemed to be too simple of a role for him. Was he doing it for just the cash or was he overplaying the simpleton character? I couldn't tell. Hurt seemed to play Dave with so much remorse, so much pain, that you never could understand what his true story was. His reaction to his wife was flimsy, the story between him and Molly Parker was subsequently as weak, and his reactions to Jones were uncharismatic. He felt bored in this film, and instead of being funny, he just felt sad. His character was nothing to write home about, and I blame Hurt because I know he could have pushed deeper and had fun with Dave overall creating an enjoyable hour and a half. This did not happen, and we were pained for that exact amount of time. The same can be said for Molly Parker who danced her way out of our hearts and Andy Jones who played his character to discretely. There was too much counterbalance between Hurt and Jones that they could not play off each other well. What could have been a decent buddy scenario like Waking Ned Devine turned out to be just two characters talking about incoherent nothing. The story matched the characters, overall souring this film.Overall, Rare Birds was a horrible film. It had the potential to be just a simple, sweet story about friends helping each other, but instead too much was thrown into the mix to muddle the overall tone of the story. With the synopsis centering around some rare birds helping a friend gain new business, I went into the film expecting a buddy story centered with this rare bird story. Alas, it never really congealed that way. That is the biggest gripe of this film. I don't mind getting into a film and experiencing something different, but this was a completely tangent storyline. Nothing was ever developed, nothing was ever answered. I really didn't want an answer by the end of the film, but at the end I felt cheated and wronged. Even the supposed "love story" didn't seem real, but instead very forced. Pass on Rare Birds if you can. It has nothing to do with friendship and very little to do with birds.Grade: * out of *****

daisysunflowerlady A truly awful movie. I've been waiting many months to see this movie as its so hard to get from the video rental places. Now I know why. William Hurt's performance was lifeless. His comment towards the end about getting someone to run the restaurant was laughable. The relationship with Alice was uninspiring, by the time she left I could really care less. It seemed as if there was a lot more scenes that were filmed but edited it out. It was hard to follow why things were happening (why did they decide to start burning the coke?). I've been in Newfoundland and loved it. I didn't see any of those fancy people eating that fancy food and paying high prices for it. A true disappointment.

bandlady I just finished reading all the other comments and am confounded by the ones that say this is a funny movie. I maybe shouldn't comment on the movie as a whole, as I was unable to finish watching it, it was so boring. So, I'll limit my comments to the birder perspective: As a birder, I am insulted by the made up bird names (red-breasted grebe? Give me a break), and the use of an extinct bird for title character. Birders do rush to see rarities when possible, but it wouldn't have had to be something that esoteric to bring "us" in. And, while I admit I am not at all conversant with Newfoundland nuance, I'm hard pressed to understand how anything else about this movie could be redeeming, except for the scenery which was awesome.