THE PLOT THUS FAR
Three avid bird watchers compete to spot the rarest birds in North America at a prestigious annual event.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
‘The Big Year’ follows a poor, young, yet aspirational birder in Brad Harris, who also serves as the films narrator, and a retired former-CEO named Stu Preissler who wants to leave his world of work behind him once and for all and actually enjoy the finer points in life for once. Brad lives with his parents after his previous marriage failed and despite his financial insecurity and his father’s reluctance, he places everything he has into making a Big Year. While Stu, supported by his wife Edith, just wants to experience birding for what it is. Despite an insurmountable mountain of wealth at his fingertips, he instead opts to drive, pillage and work toward his birding conquest by himself and along the way he meets the determined Brad as they strike a friendship up over their common love for the feathery creatures.
Alongside their story, there is also Kenny Bostick who holds the Big Year record, once a contractor, he decided to turn his efforts toward his childhood hobby of bird watching, and his hard-work eventually paid off as he became the most recognised birder in the world, but this wasn’t without consequence. Fast forward a few years later and now Bostick is attempting to settle down with his new wife Jessica, but when January 1st rolls around again he can’t shake the fact that somebody may be attempting to break his record and he sets out once again to complete yet another Big Year and in the process he places yet another marriage on the slippery black rocks of potential divorce-hood as he must carefully navigate a tight-rope between his hobby and his future.
The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes, gag reel and a featurette. The A/V Quality is a near reference quality 1080p transfer and a dynamic DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track. Why it’s not the high quality comedy you’d expect from a film about birding, it works as a warm-hearted drama. The deleted scenes show that the film was originally working as a dramedy, but I guess editing shifted the tone. In the end, I’ll recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
