After Midnight in Paris it’s hard to take Owen Wilson non-seriously again but we’ll try. In this film about bird watching – based on the theory/name that lovers of birds could try to compete to see the greatest amount of birds in a ‘big year’ – Wilson plays the top birding freak who has a record of 732 photographed species. His wife (Rosamund Pike) is nesting in her own way, taking fertility treatments that are rendered useless if her man is always off with binoculars and camera in some field or forest. Steve Martin plays an exhausted/retiring CEO who thinks it’s his time in life to do what he wants, while Jack Black is a 36 year old divorced loser living at home with his parents(Brian Dennehy and Diane Weist) and hoping they’ll ‘invest’ in this opportunity.
So the three men compete, continuing to butt heads in every mountaintop and especially in the outer reaches of Alaska where some rare bird can be seen like never before. For a short while you’ll question ‘what is the point in this film?’ but there’s something charming about their passion that makes it a likable obsession even if it’s on the level of “I thought I saw a Tweety Bird” stupid. Could be worse…they could be husbands hanging home and watching football or passing the time on the golfcourse. As for the acting, it’s solid and these three know their craft. They’re sort of the unHangover guys on Discovery Channel. One and a half tiaras (for a better premise than actual movie)