Bird People

People are just like birds, this French drama asserts-over and over again, with mind-numbing obviousness, until you might feel like spreading your wings and flying away yourself.

An airport hotel may not seem the most inspiring of locations for a story of life-changing consequence, but French filmmaker Pascale Ferran's delicate, compassionate "Bird People" is just that sort of risk-taking existential adventure.

The vehicle for the message feels haphazard, as if Ferran were trying to create a patchwork of various film types rather than one cohesive piece.

The film is too cold and strained to be at the caliber of the kind of movie that goes from realism to the fantastic. [Full review in Spanish]