Lady Bird

## More information

**Lady Bird** is a 2017 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed and written by Greta Gerwig. The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Lois Smith.

## Synopsis

A nurse works tirelessly to keep her family afloat after her husband loses his job. She also maintains a turbulent bond with a teenage daughter who is just like her: loving, strong-willed and deeply opinionated.

### Plot

In the fall of 2002, Christine McPherson is a senior at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic High School in Sacramento, California. She gives herself the nickname "Lady Bird." Despite her family's financial struggles, she longs to attend a prestigious college in "a city with culture” somewhere on the East Coast. Her mother, Marion, does not believe Christine's dreams are possible and tells her that she is ungrateful for what she has. An argument between them prompts Christine to jump from a moving car, breaking her arm.

Christine and her best friend, Julie, join their school's theater program, where Christine begins dating Danny, who attends the adjacent school for boys. Christine spends her last Thanksgiving before graduation with Danny's wealthy family, instead of her own, much to the disappointment of Marion. After the opening night of the school production of *Merrily We Roll Along*, Christine and Danny break up when she catches him kissing a boy in a bathroom stall.

At Marion's behest, Christine begins working at a coffee shop, where she meets Kyle, a popular student at the school for boys. Christine abandons tryouts for the new school play to bond with Jenna Walton, a popular student, and they vandalize a nun's car. As she grows closer to Kyle and Jenna, Christine begins spending less time with Julie and drops out of the theater program. She consoles Danny one day when he tearfully expresses his fear of coming out, and they become friends again.

At a house party, Christine and Kyle kiss, and they both confess that they are virgins. After they have sex for the first time, Kyle reveals that he is not actually a virgin, upsetting Christine and prompting her to seek comfort from her mother. After Christine is suspended from school for speaking up at an anti-abortion assembly, Jenna tries to visit her, consequently discovering that Christine had claimed Danny's grandmother's house as her own to impress her. Jenna agrees to forgive her for the lie because of their mutual friendship with Kyle, but their friendship becomes strained.

Christine learns that her father, Larry, has been out of a job and battling depression for years. Despite Marion's insistence that their family cannot afford the fees, Christine secretly applies to East Coast colleges with her father's help. She is accepted into UC Davis but feels it is too close to home. She later learns she is on the wait list for a university in New York City but does not share the news with Marion.

Christine sets out for the prom with Kyle, Jenna, and Jenna's boyfriend, but the latter three decide to go to a house party instead. Christine initially agrees but then asks them to drop her off at Julie's, where the two rekindle their friendship and go to prom together.

After graduation, Danny accidentally mentions the wait list in front of Marion, who stops speaking to Christine for the rest of the summer. Christine gets accepted to the university and her parents take her to the airport, but Marion refuses to go inside to say goodbye. Marion begins crying while leaving the airport and drives back, only to discover that Christine has already gone through security. She cries in Larry's arms and he consoles her.

After arriving in New York, Christine finds several letters addressed to her in her luggage. The letters were written and initially discarded by her mother but secretly collected and passed along by her father. She begins using her given name again and is hospitalized after drinking heavily at a party. Leaving the hospital, she visits a Presbyterian church service and is moved to tears. She calls home and leaves an apologetic voicemail for her mother thanking her for everything she has done for her.

## Cast

* Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson
* Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson
* Tracy Letts as Larry McPherson
* Lucas Hedges as Daniel "Danny" O'Neill
* Timothée Chalamet as Kyle Scheible
* Beanie Feldstein as Julianne "Julie" Steffans
* Lois Smith as Sister Sarah Joan
* Stephen McKinley Henderson as Father Leviatch
* Odeya Rush as Jenna Walton
* Jordan Rodrigues as Miguel McPherson
* Marielle Scott as Shelly Yuhan
* Jake McDorman as Mr. Bruno
* John Karna as Greg Anrue
* Bayne Gibby as Casey Kelly
* Laura Marano as Diana Greenway
* Andy Buckley as Matt
* Kathryn Newton as Darlene Bell