THE BIG YEAR

20^TH Century Fox / 2011 / 100 min. / PG

THE BIG YEAR was a huge box office flop for Fox last year, grossing a mere $7million, despite the presence of three comedy heavyweights – Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson – leading the cast.  Set in the world of birding (“bird watching” is apparently a no-no term to aficionados), the movie is hampered by both a difficult-to-sell premise and a script that is pretty free of laughs.  But it is an amiable picture with valuable Hollywood life lessons at its core.

Wilson plays arrogant Kenny Bostick, a contractor with a trying-to-get-pregnant wife (Rosamund Pike), who has set the record of spotting the most species of birds in a calendar year.  In other words, he’s at the top of the heap of this esoteric world, but sets out on a quest to top himself in yet another Big Year and hang onto his title.  Also pursuing their own Big Years in this informal competition are Stu Preissler (Martin), a wealthy, retiring CEO with an understanding wife (JoBeth Williams) and Brad Harris (Black), a divorced, computer programming drone, whose father (Brian Dennehy) doesn’t understand why he’s wasting his time.

The conflicts at the heart of the movie revolve not just around the competition of who has the most bird sightings, but more importantly, what these characters sacrifice in pursuit of their birding dreams, as well as what they gain.  With a solid supporting cast that includes Rashida Jones as a birding love interest for Black, Kevin Pollak and Joel McHale as Martin’s corporate cronies, and John Cleese, who narrates the whole affair, THE BIG YEAR is not short of on screen talent.

Working from a script by Howard Franklin (SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, QUICK CHANGE), director David Frankel (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) keeps everything moving along at a brisk enough pace.  The big problem is with Martin, Black and Wilson in the leads, you expect a comedy tour de force, and THE BIG YEAR simply doesn’t deliver on that count.

With audiences shunning this Hollywood product set in the unexciting world of birding, THE BIG YEAR’s amiable tone might have added to its grim commercial outcome.  After all, would you rush out to see a bird watching movie?  (Apparently, you didn’t.)  Maybe if the script pumped up the nastiness, or if the subject matter got a more satiric treatment, a la Christopher Guest’s BEST IN SHOW, the picture might have found more of an audience.  As it is, THE BIG YEAR was just too featherweight to have paying crowds flocking to theaters, but it might find a little more life on home video.

THE DISC

The 1080p, AVC-encoded transfer looks fine.  However, many of the interior scenes feel a bit too contrast-y, with dark areas overtaking the picture.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track does exactly what it needs to do.  Efficient, if not spectacular.

EXTRAS

“The Big Migration” is a standard behind-the-scenes featurette that follows the crew as they hit a vast array of locations across North America.

17-minutes of deleted scenes are included.

A 6-minute gag reel and theatrical trailer can also be found.

MY SAY

Though not as funny as it needed to be, THE BIG YEAR is far from a disaster.  Solid performances, spectacular scenery and a theme that examines the joy and the price of obsession make it worth checking out on Blu-ray.

--Reviewed by David Newman