Even if it doesn’t live up to its festival reviews or its crazy possibilities, “Birdman” serves up so many heady moments it qualifies as a bona fide happening. The movie begins quietly enough — an actor meditates in his dressing room before a stage rehearsal — but there’s a curveball. The actor is floating in mid-air.
No mention is made of this, nor of the other apparently telekinetic powers that belong to Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton). A movie star in a career skid since he stopped playing a masked superhero named Birdman back in the ’90s, Thomson is preparing his big comeback. Unless it kills him first.
He’s in the St. James Theater on Broadway for the final rehearsals on his own adaptation of the work of Raymond Carver. As his producer (Zach Galifianakis) keeps reminding him, Riggan’s own money is on the line, and so is whatever’s left of his reputation.
Obstacles abound: Riggan’s co-star (Andrea Riseborough, from “Oblivion”) announces she’s pregnant with his child; his grown daughter (Emma Stone) is his assistant, and not his biggest fan; a New York Times critic (Lindsay Duncan) plans to destroy the play and the habit of Hollywood people ruining Broadway.
And, in the movie’s funniest headache, Riggan must endure a popular but insufferable stage actor (Edward Norton) — currently involved with the play’s other actress (Naomi Watts) — who’s full of pompous ideas about keeping it real.
Speaking as someone who has always found Norton a faintly self-righteous screen personality, I can only say that the actor has found his ideal role. (Seriously, he’s great in it.)
This is all going on while Riggan maintains a tenuous hold on his own sanity — he hears Birdman’s voice in his head, for one thing. To create Riggan’s world, director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and “Gravity” cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki present the film as a continuous unbroken shot (disguised with artful digital seams).
At times we understand that a day or so has passed, but the camera just keeps prowling around, looking for the newest breakdown. This, along with the lively — if not terribly fresh — showbiz satire keeps the film humming.
The full title is “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” a mouthful that hints at some of Iñárritu’s loftier tendencies. The director of “Babel” and “21 Grams” has been guilty of a heavy touch in the past, and “Birdman” has a few such stumbles.
But the result is truly fun to watch, and Keaton — the former Batman, of course — is a splendidly weathered, human presence. Ironically or not, he keeps the film grounded.
“Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” (3 stars)
An over-the-hill movie star (Michael Keaton) is dogged by his past role as a superhero when he tries to mount a serious Broadway comeback. Despite a few stumbles, this film (shot by director Alejandro G. Inarritu as though in one continuous take) serves up so many heady moments it qualifies as a bona fide happening. With Edward Norton, Naomi Watts.
Rating: R, for language
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