Emotionless

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2019)

So I did it. I finally watched Bird Box. Not because I was in desperate need to but mostly because I had become an unwilling member of an ever-dwindling community that was forced to navigate all of social media through a make-shift blindfold in order to avoid spoilers.
Here's my main problem with this film. There was a total void of emotion and lack of connection & realistic relationship contact from all characters. I don't know whether this is down to crappy writing or directing but it really noticed. It starts almost right away, in one of the beginning scenes Malorie (Bullock) & her sister Jessica (Paulson) see a news report on the TV about a mystery illness that's forcing people to kill themselves, seeing images of death and destruction & instead of trying to find out more about the issue they turn the TV off and say something like "oh well it's in Russia". They then have a discussion about a horse and Malories unborn child, joking around & seemingly unphased by what they had just seen. I guess you could argue that we see so many images of war & disease on the news everyday that we become desensitised to it but this was something different, something new. A mystery disease that made people kill themselves? Surely you'd show some sort of shock, disbelief, panic? But no, off they trotted to a doctors appointment.
The next example of this is when Jessica walks in front of a car after seeing the mysterious 'demons'. I get Malorie had just been in a car accident and was dazed, confused and caught up by the panic, but she showed no sign of well..anything really. She didn't even try to stop Jessica from killing herself. She doesn't even attempt to go towards the body, she just runs off in the opposite direction into the crowd. I know there's a scene a bit later in the film when she has a 5 second breakdown but it just seems a little hollow.
This happens again when then see Malorie fall to the ground amongst the chaos and a woman from a nearby house comes to her rescue after realising that she's pregnant. The lady then sees the 'demons' and climbs into a burning car whilst her husband (malkovich) watches from the window. Now I don't know about you but that for me would be a pretty traumatic experience. The most emotion we get from Malkovich in this scene is a slightly raised voice as he confronts Malorie with "That woman was my wife, she went to help you". The entire film is littered with these horrifying scenes but with little to no reaction from the group.
My thoughts whilst watching this film shifted mostly between "Why is Sandra Bullock in this?" & "Seriously, how did they get Sandra Bullock?". I get it, Netflix is the way forward and lots of A-listers are doing Netflix original films now but this really just felt like the producers/casting agent were in a meeting and jokingly spurted out Sandra's name as a wishful thought for lead actress and then when she actually agreed (without reading the script?) they were screwed with the remaining casting budget and just started picking names out of a hat from then on.
Apart from John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson & the little girl the supporting cast are terrible. They are either completely unmemorable and I have no comment on them or just so unnatural to acting that you remember them for all the wrong reasons. We have Lil Rel Howery (who I have never heard of but is apparently a comedian?) playing the annoying, cringeworthy character of Charlie a know-it-all, book writing, Apocalypse and demon "expert" who just happens to end up in the same house as our main character (eye-roll). The only purpose of Charlie is that he has the key to the supermarket and accompanied the rest of the survivors on a supply run before dying. All I can say is stick to the comedy Lil Rel because it can't be any worse than your lack of acting ability. We then have Machine Gun Kelly, ya know, that random rapper who had beef with Eminem for 12 minutes? How current I hear you cry. His character is basically as deep as a puddle with the majority of his interactions being "yo we gonna die" & shagging another character in the laundry room. This character being Lucy played by Rosa Salazar who I know only from the Maze Runner films, but thought she was a pretty good actress. Her small role in this film does her no justice. Apart from hooking up with MGK her only other slightly memorable snippet is her bizarre scream & overly disgusted comical face when Charlie dies.
The film is at it's best when Sandra Bullock is on her own with the two children. It becomes a gritty, survival horror rather than a predictable series of events poorly acted out by unbearable characters. Aside from Sandra the best performance comes from Vivien Lyra Blair who plays Girl. The scene in the boat where she offers herself up as sacrifice is one of the best in the whole film & full of raw emotion and talent. You can see the heartbreak in her face as she holds back the tears but resides herself to possible death to save Boy and Malorie. Take note everyone else! This is acting.
Overall, I found the film pretty disappointing. It never helps when a film is so overhyped before you get around to watch it because you want it to be as good as you imagine but it hardly ever is. Bird Box is one of those films. There's parts that had potential to be something special. The film should have cut the first hour and a half of pointless interactions with stupid characters and just centred on Malorie surviving with the kids after a catastrophic event. They could have incorporated folklore about the 'demons' and kept it dark and gritty with interactions between the best actors in the film.
But that's just my opinion.
I give Bird Box a 3 out of 10.