Bluebird Review: Marvelous

A split-second is ample time to flip one’s life upside down. That second could send a ripple effect through your life and your families. If that is something you do not put too much weight in, watch Lace Edmands’s “Bluebird.”

Starring “Chicago P.D.’s” Amy Morton and John Slattery from the hit-series “Mad Men,” “Bluebird,” is a lesson in how one moment can shake a small town. Edmands’ feature debut is a refreshing character piece anchored by Morton’s marvelous performance and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes’ work.

Set in a small town in Maine during the dead of winter, Lesley (Morton) is a veteran school bus driver of 12 years. She is about as caring as a bus driver can get, at one point giving her hat to a student who forgot his at home. At the end of every school bus driver’s shift, they must do an inspection of the bus, which she begins to do—until a bird that has found its way on board distracts her. Lesley’s attention is on the bird for only a brief moment, but this moment will soon be a moment that will playback in her head over and over again until it breaks her.

The next day, Lesley gets in her bus to start her day when she notices a pair of feet in the back, the feet of a young boy. The boy is then rushed to the hospital and Lesley’s own personal hell begins.

The concept of an event changing a town is not new at all, but like with any good film its merits lie in the execution and characters— Morton’s performance as Lesley is nothing short of amazing, it is a brilliantly captured by Edmands with long takes that resonate and speak much more than the actors themselves. A scene as simple as Lesley cutting potatoes for dinner is beautiful as she breaks down after cutting herself and is comforted by her husband Richard (Slattery).

This is not a huge ensemble piece that does not mean it is not filled with more than one than one great performance. Slattery trades in whiskey and chain smoking for carthart jackets and lumberjacking as Richard. Dealing with the blowback from Lesley’s mistake on top of the fact he will soon be out of jobs shows a different side of Slattery, one that is unsure of what to do, not the supremely confident dapper gent we’ve all are accustomed to seeing.

Lesley’s guilt is one of many problems, one being the boy’s mother Marla played by Louisa Krause. Krause is able to bring out the desperation in Marla, a young woman who never tapped into her potential and looks to take advantage of Lesley’s mistake the only way us Americans know how, with a lawsuit.

The great thing about “Bluebird” is that the film could follow any of these three characters and it would still be compelling, Edmands balances each perspective with such grace and care it is hard to believe this is his first feature. Only running for a lean 91 minutes, once the credits roll you feel you have gotten a good sense of every character and their motivations, which for some odd reason is very rare in modern storytelling.
“Bluebird” does end abruptly without any real solution, but you at the end of you do feel that things will get better. Going on this short journey with these characters gives you a sense that the worst is far behind them and that there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Where most first features fail, “Bluebird” succeeds on every level. It is one of those films where if you surveyed 100 people that saw it, you’d probably get 100 different answers as to what resonated with them emotionally and aesthetically—the characters are that fleshed out and grounded by such authentic performances. Edmands crafts a simple but gorgeous film that makes him a filmmaker to keep an eye on.