The Big Year

Directed by David Frankel

(PG)

**

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The Big Year “is a more muted affair than you would expect,” said Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic. With three of the biggest names in comedy on hand— Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, and Jack Black—the movie might have been expected to go one of two ways: “inspired comedy or off-the-rails failure.” Instead, it falls somewhere in the middle—“toned down” but enjoyable, as Wilson plays the reigning champion of a national birding competition, while Martin and Black try to best him by viewing more rare birds in a single year. “Refreshingly devoid of foul language, bathroom humor, and silly slapstick,” this is a comedy that coasts along on the strength of “a winning premise, likable performances, and stunning natural vistas,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Yet its charms are also its downfall, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. The Big Year “has the virtue of being deeply uncynical, but at the expense of propulsive vigor and behavior that’s recognizably human as opposed to engineered in Hollywood.” Like the movie itself, its characters are “mild-mannered to a fault.”