Pretty Bird

I found myself watching this film late the other night. Unable to stay awake, but intrigued, I recorded it to watch later. It is a strangely alluring film, but one that makes little sense in the end. Billy Crudup is a man with an idea – an idea to build a rocket pack. He ropes in an old friend as investor, and an out-of-work engineer (Paul Giamatti) to do the actual science, whilst he tries to market what they’ve got. This is a comedy, in case you’re wondering, but its humour is subtle and weird. The ‘where would we be if Oppenheimer hadn’t invented the nuclear bomb?’ speech is brilliantly dark. We’re never quite sure if Crudup’s character is a genius, mad, evil or stupid. When they realise they have actually invented something that works, things start to get weird(er). It should be the point where they start to make money, but instead their friend/investor goes bankrupt and Crudup disappears with the rocket pack. This is based on a true story, which makes it even stranger, and perhaps explains its lack of dramatic completion at the end. In real life, the belt can never be found – in drama/film, however, it has to be. We need some sort of completion to the cycle of the action. So the film ends, and we are as puzzled as we’ve ever been about human behaviour. Crudup is exceptional, and the film never tries to be anything that it isn’t. It reminded me of Primer in many ways – quietly brilliant and disturbing.