The film, directed by Wash Westmoreland and based on the novel of the same name by Susanna Jones, opens with Japanese police questioning expat Lucy (Tomb Raider’s Alicia Vikander) about the disappearance of her friend Lily (Riley Keough). I admire his attempt to dig into the emotional depths of its protagonist's trauma. Lucy largely aims her ire at Lily, even when Teiji tells her he’s deliberately behaving more warmly toward Lily in hopes of making Lucy jealous. Its premise promises a tale full of exhilarating shocks and spectacle either sexy, scandalous, vicious or all of the above! https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/11/15/earthquake-bird-movie-review-netflix “What are you really thinking?” he demands. FACEBOOK The elements are there, but the shocks fail to rattle. Parents need to know that Earthquake Bird is a dark, moody psychological thriller based on the novel by Susanna Jones. What remains is a film that is brooding, cerebral, empathetic, but not thrilling or fun. Editor: Jonathan Alberts Meanwhile, Lucy begins a tentative romance with Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi), an archetypal tall dark stranger who catches her attention by rudely taking her photo in the street. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. Having raved over Westmoreland's previous films, I was stunned to find Earthquake Bird woefully underwhelming. With this guilty pleasure factor dialed right down, Westmoreland is stuck trying to squeeze excitement from wooden performances, ponderous dialogue and poorly explained hallucination scenes, not to mention minimal sexual chemistry between his passionless leads. On a craft level, the pic is a polished package. (There’s a regrettably Swiftian contrast between Lily … Earthquake Bird brings A-list collaborators to B-movie material, but to mostly uninspired effect. by I dare you.”. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Ultimately, Earthquake Bird remains grounded because most viewers will have trouble buying into its absurd plot, and too few will even care. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. But it is also a fairly flat treatment of over-familiar plot elements, and fatally low on the key psycho-thriller elements of suspense, surprise and dread. Smooth, still shots become choppy and shaky, flitting around Vikander as she grows more and more panicked. The Best PlayStation Deals for October 2020, Best Buy 4KTV and Amazon Fire Deals: Save in This 60-Hour Pre-Black Friday Sale, Daily Deals: Preorder Cyberpunk 2077 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, or PC and Save 17% Off, Cohen on Giuliani's Borat 2 Denial: "He Did What He Did", The Boys Season 3: Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy Explained, PS5: Third-Party Company Already Selling Custom Faceplates, Marvel Reveals the Heartbreaking Secret Behind Apocalypse's Villainy, The Suicide Squad: See the Whole Cast of the DC Movie Assembled, The Crown Season 4, V for Vendetta, and Everything Else New to Netflix in November, Gears 5 Series X Update Brings New Game+, More Batista, Netflix's The Queen's Gambit: Spoiler-Free Review, Things Ghost of Tsushima Doesn't Tell You. Lucy Fly (Vikander) is a prim Swedish translator who has lived and worked in Japan for five years, long enough to consider herself a virtual native. Perhaps the goal was to make a thriller that's more intellectual, less trashy fun. The movie’s overall pace is slow, which makes it notable — and unsettling — when the action speeds up. Based on a prize-winning 2001 crime novel by English author Susanna Jones, this solidly crafted Ridley Scott production is sprinkled with classy ingredients, including Alicia Vikander as headline star. The story takes place in Tokyo in 1989. All rights reserved. Oscar-winner Atticus Ross also provides a suitably moody score, creepy and subtle one minute, urgent and percussive the next. Body parts have been found in Tokyo harbor that may belong to Lucy's missing friend Lily Bridges (Riley Keough), an extrovert American exile who was last seen leaving the Swedish woman's apartment. Netflix’s new mystery film Earthquake Bird brings back memories of the gossip columns of 2012, when Twilight star Kristen Stewart (then in a relationship with Robert Pattinson) and then-married Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders had an affair. © 2020 The Hollywood Reporter EMAIL ME. The twist upon a twist is more interesting than “love triangle gone wrong,” but perhaps less sensationalist. Earthquake Bird feels like a step back from that, muddling a potential thread on how women are often pitted against each other. Producers: Ridley Scott, Kevin J. Walsh, Michael Pruss, Ann Ruark, Georgina Pope He hardly helps his cause by letting the plot's two most significant deaths happen offscreen, and giving Lucy a back story of historical wounds that feels like glib, by-the-numbers pop psychology. Sitemap | Terms of Use | The bigger problem is that it’s introduced so late that it can’t counteract the film’s stodgy lead-up. 3.0 out of 5 stars The Earthquake Bird gets lost. The film’s A-grade stars are underserved by B-grade material. Until one day, out of the blue, when she is hauled in for interrogation by stern homicide detectives. As the uncooperative heroine, a European expat living in Japan, is questioned by Tokyo police about the disappearance of an American woman, the story is revealed in layered flashbacks and memories from her past. The British-born, Los Angeles-based Westmoreland has a pretty strong critical and commercial track record, notably as co-director of the Oscar-winning Julianne Moore drama Still Alice (2014) and the Keira Knightley-starring period piece Colette (2018). 11:50 AM PDT 10/10/2019 As Lucy's feelings for her enigmatic Japanese lover deepen into obsession, Lily's flirtatious interest in Teiji soon becomes a source of simmering jealousy between the two women. Netflix's Earthquake Bird is a not particularly engaging thriller featuring an inert performance from Alicia Vikander. But for all its smart plumage, this bird never takes flight. But it’s too little and too late to counteract the feeling that the blame for a bad situation might be unfairly placed. About Our Ads The dial on that antagonism shifts as Earthquake Bird becomes more of a thriller than a melodrama, but it shifts too late. Privacy | Venue: London Film Festival. Netflix’s thriller Earthquake Bird is too little, too late. Cast: Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Naoki Kobayashi, Jack Huston, Kiki Sukezane, Ken Yamamura Earthquake Bird is streaming on Netflix now. Though they eventually begin getting along, as Lily’s friendliness gets the better of Lucy, another source of tension arises as Lily also begins to grow closer to Lucy’s boyfriend Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi). Cinematographer: Chung Chung-hoon Following its world premiere at London Film Festival, it is heading for a limited theatrical release on Nov. 1, then streaming on Netflix from Nov. 15. There’s a similar dynamic at play in the love triangle in Earthquake Bird — for most of its runtime, it casts the other woman as the story’s villain. Unspoken suspicions finally boil over during a shared trip to the picturesque Sado Island, when Lucy is mysteriously taken ill and all but abandoned by her two travel companions. The Hollywood Reporter, LLC is a subsidiary of Prometheus Global Media, LLC.
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