I knew I wanted to watch “The Starling” the moment I heard that Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd were staring in it. It wasn’t until I actually saw the movie that I fell in love with the storytelling. “The Starling” is emotionally powerful and heart-wrenchingly relatable.
The movie deals with loss, grief, struggle, and renewal. I found myself in tears a few times as I was emotionally attached to the characters right from that beautiful opening scene. Two parents, preparing a nursery for their baby, in a fragile yet caring relationship sharing hopes and dreams of the future their offspring might experience.
After Lilly (Melissa McCarthy) suffers a loss, a battle with a feisty bird (the Starling) over dominion of her garden provides an unlikely avenue for her grief and the courage to heal her relationships and rediscover her capacity for love.
– Netflix
One of the unexpected things in “The Starling” is the humor. I didn’t expect to laugh during a movie dealing with such deep subjects, but I did. The humor is subtle and perfectly placed. In the moments that everything seems almost too heavy to handle there, it is the momentary smile or chuckle.
I was lucky enough to be part of a media call with Ted Melfi (Director of “The Starling”) & Kimberly Quinn (Actor/Co-Producer of “The Starling”).
I’ve been married for 25 years, and I’m always touched by stories with characters that fight for their relationships, couples that do the work internally and together to make their marriage work and last, because they love each other…and they know inside themselves that that love is always worth fighting for, always worth the work. Any relationship requires effort, that’s a given, “The Starling” is an essay on that process.
“The Starling” was shot pre-Covid and completed in the thick of it. During the process, we lost one of our Visual Effects Coordinators and my mom passed away. Over the past year and a half, so many of us have experienced losses… and what we need now, more than ever, is hope. Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel, the thought that things must surely get better. For me, “The Starling” is ultimately about this hope and my wish for the film is that it will be a balm for our collective grief… and it will allow us to laugh and cry together and know that there is something on the other side if we have the courage and will to keep going.
– Theodore Melfi, Director of “The Starling”
I can’t say enough good things about this film. It is a gem that should be enjoyed over and over again. The whole team did a fantastic job on a beautiful story.
Watch “The Starling“, only on Netflix.