White Bird, the Marc Forster-directed film adaptation of author R. J. Palacio’s sequel/prequel to her worldwide hit book and 2017 movie Wonder, has taken a long and circuitous route to finally getting a North American release. Frustrating as it has been, this is a film that is well worth the wait and perhaps more timely now than ever.
Shot in the Czech Republic in February 2021, White Bird was initially set as a wide release in September 2022, delayed a month to October then taken off Lionsgate‘s release schedule entirely before either of those dates came around. It was then scheduled for an August 2023 opening, but last year’s SAG strike meant another delay until it was finally set several months ago for its October 4 release this Friday.
In that time, one of its production companies, Participant, has gone out of business, and another, Mandeville Films, has seen the split of its partners Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman, who share producer credit here with Palacio. It distributor Lionsgate has also gone under big executive changes at the top, with Adam Fogelson taking charge of movies. The studio at some point also brought in its faith-based label, Kingdom Story Company (I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution) to help find it an audience even though this tender story of a young Jewish girl being hidden from the Nazi occupation of a small town in France during World War II does not resemble the usual type of film in the faith-based subgenre. It did have one brief screening at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in 2023, where one trade saw it and posted a positive review.
I was able to see the unreleased film two years ago in October 2022 and thought then it was a moving and worthwhile film, the type, not star-driven, that studios find difficult to market. Nevertheless, it is a breath of fresh air to the usual stuff served up to the target teen audience these days. It is a film closer in spirit to The Diary of Anne Frank and one with a strong message of the need for kindness in an increasingly dark world. That message was also key in Palacio’s Wonder, which I suppose is why the studio had initially tagged this as White Bird: A Wonder Movie but now thankfully is only saying it is “from the author of Wonder.” Audiences expecting a direct sequel to that 2017 Julia Roberts-starring film might have been confused, but the trailer is still selling it as “the next chapter.” Seeing the movie again this week I felt its power and significance to be even greater than on my first viewing, and a movie that stands proudly on its own.
The connection between the two films is the character of Julian Albans (Bryce Gheiser, who appears in both movies), who is having a hard time adjusting to his new school and is reprimanded for his treatment of another student there. Enter Grandmere, his grandmother Sara Blum (Helen Mirren), a renowned artist who decides that now would be the perfect time to tell him a story of her own youth in a small village during the Nazi occupation of France in 1942. From that point on Mirren’s role is mostly as voice-over for much of the movie, which is told in flashback. The young Sara (Ariella Glaser) is one of a small number of Jewish students in her classroom when a group of Nazis storm into the town. The teacher (Patsy Ferran) rushes Sara and another student out to hide with others in the school, but their presence is made known when a school bully, Vincent (Jem Matthews), shouts out that the school is hiding them. As they are gathered up, much to the consternation of Principal Pastor Luc (Stuart McQuarrie), Sara, whose parents (Olivia Ross, Ishai Golan) had to leave in order not to be discovered by the Germans, manages to run into the woods and escapes notice.
She is befriended by Julian Beaumier (Orlando Schwerdt), a fellow student stricken with polio who gets around on crutches and is the projectionist for the local theater, which is showing his favorite movie Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. He has basically been shunned by the other students, even Sara, until she experiences first-hand his true kindness, volunteering to hide her in his family’s large barn, a place deserted except for rats and a coven of bats high up in the rafters. His empathetic parents Vivienne (a terrific Gillian Anderson) and Jean Paul Beaumier (Jo Stone-Fewings) also agree to help hide her for the duration. Soon a budding romance starts between Sara and Julian, even as the days turn into months, and some of the locals including Vincent have taken up with the Nazi occupation. No one is safe here, but Sara can look up to the skies and occasionally see a white bird that represents a kind of peace no one can feel during this horrendous time.
With increasing right wing antisemitism and Nazi groups reappearing in America and many corners of the world, now more than ever a story like White Bird must be seen, especially for the younger audience at whom it is aimed. Hollywood has produced numerous classic films revolving around the Holocaust and the extinction of the Jewish people at the hands of Nazi Germany, but this one, like Anne Frank, is quietly but unflinchingly told through the eyes of young people who find their lives on a tightrope. Forster’s PG-13 film does not sugarcoat any of this, and it is at times hard to watch, but necessary. The director (Quantum Of Solace, Monster’s Ball) has also excelled in movies focusing on young people but never talking down to them, films like Finding Neverland, Christopher Robin and The Kite Runner, and also ones full of humanity and kindness like his more recent gem A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks and released at the end of 2022 while White Bird sat unreleased.
The casting (Kate Dowd was casting director) is perfection. Glaser and Schwerdt are very fine in the key roles, each completely engaging and believable, with Schwerdt an emotional standout as his character goes through some tough moments. Matthews truly makes you hate him, and in that assignment the actor succeeds completely. Mirren, as always, adds not only a touch of class but also gets to give a speech that serves as a stirring coda to the story she has just told.
Screenwriter Mark Bomback, known for several blockbuster-style movies, delivers a script faithful to the essence of Palacio’s graphic novel, but makes it stand out as a gripping tale without getting maudlin or overly sentimental. Visually, Forster and his excellent cinematographer Mattias Konigswieser have created some striking sequences, notably in the barn as Sara and Julian sit in the old truck there as they seemingly drive thru various cinematic images projected in front of them, a trip thru New York City the most dazzling. The production design from Jennifer Williams also hits the mark perfectly, and veteran composer Thomas Newman not only contributes another lilting score, but also a haunting song (with lyrics by Palacio) sung by the young stars, as well as over the end credits.
Hopefully, despite all the delays, White Bird will be given a chance to soar and find its audience. It deserves to.
Title: White Bird
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release date: October 4, 2024
Director: Marc Forster
Screenwriter: Mark Bomback
Cast: Helen Mirren, Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, Bryce Gheisar, Gillian Anderson, Jo Stone-Fewings, Olivia Ross, Ishai Golan, Jem Matthews, Patsy Ferran, Stuart McQuarrie
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hr 2 mins