This seemed like a really dumb idea. While most people enjoyed the movie Wonder, no one was really clamoring for a sequel to it. And, even if there was a sequel, we’re gonna really have one about the mean, childhood bully of the kid with the face deformity? That’s sounds even worse! And yet, like a White Bird would do, it rises above the pointlessness and stupidity of this movie franchising to take the essence of Wonder and transfer it to a new time and place, to tell a different type of tale that teens around the world also need to hear.
So yeah, White Bird leaves Augie with his happy family and follows around his bully Julian (Bryce Gheisar) in high school now. As Julian is going about his quiet, sad, under the radar life, his Grandmere Sara (Helen Mirren) visits him. Sensing the boy’s rut, grandma recounts the tale of her younger self (Ariella Glaser) meeting the boy (Orlando Schwerdt) that would end up changing her life…in 1940’s France during, um, trying times for Jewish citizens.
The main theme of Wonder was “Choose Kind.” That kind of sweet messaging clearly had an affect on the producers and Marc Forster, the director. So they choose kind for White Bird, by actually giving their all with what could have been a straight to streaming dump. There are multiple sequences that go the extra mile to really make this movie as entertaining and exciting as possible. Sara’s escape from the Nazi’s surprise round-up at the school is as frightening as this sentence is to read, showing as much as can be seen by a teenage audience without making the movie R rated. A lot of this film is spent in hiding, as Sara is trying to evade Nazi capture. How do you make one set cinematic? Well, the boy Sara is taken in by is a projectionist; Forster uses that talent to help Sara and him imagine being in other places, far away from their troubles. For a brief moment, Sara feels like the White Bird she wishes to be, galivanting about New York City or Paris or wherever they have film from that week, but Forster uses his skills to immerse the audience in that moment with the two of them, feeling all the joy they are feeling at the same time. And of course, we can’t stay hidden forever, and when that bubble burst, it’s also delicately and beautifully shot for maximum emotional impact.
Even though Julian is our entrypoint to White Bird, he’s ancillary to the movie. Unknowns Ariella Glaser and Orlando Schwerdt are asked to carry a movie by themselves. We have to buy the boy’s polio ailment, believe in their connection with one another, and showcase an evolving relationship inside of mostly one set with little to act off of. That’s tough for ANY set of actors let alone 2 novices. Maybe I’m choosing kind, but I really believe they did a pretty great job pulling it off. I believed Schwerdt’s leg condition; I believed Ariella’s evolution in her connection to this boy very quickly gets to know. I believe this because I was swooning along with this movie, scared with them for what could happen, and wishing for good things as the story reaches its big conclusion. The rest of the cast (Helen Mirren’s narration, Gillian Anderson, Patsy Ferran among others) helps sell the tale too, aiding the kids with dutiful supporting performances. White Bird isn’t perfect, but it’s well meaning and emotionally honest, better than most other IP related moviegoing experiences I had in 2024.
So props to everyone who worked on White Bird. By choosing kind yourselves, you allow me and the rest of the audience to do so as well, opening our hearts the way the movie wants Julian to do. By the end, he has to. I mean, Helen Mirren told him to do so, and I’d follow that lady to the ends of the earth.