Netflix's Earthquake Bird Movie Review

Netflix will clearly churn out anything, even films which other studios would find utterly unclassifiable

by Casimir Harlow

Netflix's Earthquake Bird Review

Another week, another average Netflix production, with this richly appointed Alicia Vikander-starring, Ridley Scott-produced Japanese-infused 'drama' slow-burning its way to nowhere.

Netflix continues to churn out productions that somehow just feel unfinished. These are, more often than not - and exceptions notwithstanding (the recent Dolemite and The King were excellent) - films that would have likely been picked apart at test screenings, whereupon either re-edits or reshoots would (hopefully) help alleviate the problems, if not outright fix them. There's been a recent flood of distinctly average productions; Rattlesnake, Fractured, In the Tall Grass, In the Shadow of the Moon - and that's just in the last couple of months - with this latest offering fitting the bill for supremely unfinished work, with the editor clearly on autopilot as he puts together an extremely lethargic film that promises much and delivers nothing.

 An extremely lethargic film that promises much and delivers nothing

Lucy is an accomplished translator working - and embedded - in Japan, having escaped to the foreign land, and from past childhood trauma, only to run headfirst into it once again when she's pulled in for questioning by the police, who suspect her in the disappearance of another foreigner, Lilly. As Lucy gives a statement, she is forced to confront the events of the last few months - her falling in love with a young Japanese photographer, and the complications that ensue when they both then meet Lucy. 


Netflix's Earthquake Bird

Based on the acclaimed novel by Susanna Jones, and produced by Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions Company, with Colette director Wash Westmoreland far from unfamiliar with putting together a character-driven period piece, Earthquake Bird really had all the ingredients it needed to make for a decent night's entertainment.

A game cast headlined by Alicia Vikander - who initially impresses quite a bit with her fluent Japanese - and featuring the always watchable Riley Keough (Logan Lucky, Under the Silver Lake), with J-pop sensation Naoki Kobayashi making a decent enough (part-)English-language debut here, everything was in place to tell an atmospheric mystery drama, founded upon a complicated love triangle, cast under the shadow of a disappearance - and possibly even murder - in a foreign land.

  Hitchcock could have handled this material better in his sleep

Unfortunately, Earthquake Bird just doesn't translate to very much at all, as it makes its way from page to screen, struggling to elicit any noteworthy level of impact from either its dark mysteries or its startling revelations about past trauma. Almost better suited to an hour-long episode (think: an episode of Netflix's Criminal - perhaps a new spin off, Criminal: Japan), it feels like it is spinning its wheels for far too long, particularly given the ultimate revelations.

It's a curse which has plagued plenty of Netflix productions, but someone should have caught onto this sooner, and figured out whether they want to tell a The Girl on the Train-style mystery (which was a very effective example of this style), a Basic Instinct-esque sex-and-murder romp, or just an outright relationship study, or even perhaps just something like Gone Girl, where twists and turns play with character expectations. Instead, it plods along in an almost comatose state, with Vikander soon going from impressively Japanese to painfully morose, Keough utterly wasted and barely having a character at all, and Kobayashi playing a character whose suspicious behaviour should have been realised much sooner. Hitchcock could have handled this material better in his sleep, but Westmoreland brings the same patience to it that he brought to Colette, only there he actually had a meaty character study to play with, and wasn't messing around with hints of murder mystery.

With The Irishman due to land before the end of the month, there's clearly more to Netflix than just these weekly straight-to-Netflix efforts, which often feel about as rewarding as trying to find a gem in the countless straight-to-video days of old. Sure, there's Dolby Vision gorgeousness here, and Dolby Atmos too, but none of that makes up for the lack of a decent story to tell, nor the inability to tell it.


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Verdict

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5

5
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Where to watch Netflix's Earthquake Bird

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