Republished with kind permission from Neal’s Paper
No amount of schizophrenia, hallucination, angst, or torpor, real or imagined can make Michael Keaton’s character, the goofily named Riggan Thomson, into a person we care about or who remains interesting for long. Keaton is fine at playing the elements of Riggan, and no doubt he will glom awards that more rightfully should be Eddie Redmayne’s or Benedict Cumberbatch’s, but he does nothing to make Riggan empathetic. Perhaps that’s his and Iñárritu’s objective, but to me, the lack of caring make “Birdman” cold, boring, and more open to criticisms about the liberties it takes about realities of life and the theater. To me, the movie comes off as phony from the beginning, and while I admired Keaton’s effort and though Edward Norton was terrific as a matinee idol with a bloated ego, I watched unmoved and unentertained until Iñárritu’s allegedly ambiguous ending. Read the complete review.
Rotten Tomatoes rating; 92%
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