The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Catherine Called Birdy’ is a medieval delight
Lena Dunham has adapted Karen Cushman’s Newbery Honor-winning novel “Catherine Called Birdy” for her latest film, about a 14-year-old in the 13th century who isn’t thrilled with the path society has laid out for her. Birdy is played by Bella Ramsey, best known for “Game of Thrones.” Ramsey gets to flex some comedic chops in this lively, entertaining film. AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr writes in her review that the film lures you in with comedy, wit and irreverence but packs a sneaky emotional punch. Rated PG-13, the film hits theaters Friday and comes to Prime Video on Oct. 7.
Passion projects can go all sorts of wrong ways, but Lena Dunham has made something of a triumph in “Catherine Called Birdy,” a medieval coming-of-age story that’s part “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” part Mel Brooks and all joy.
The film is based on a book she discovered at age 10, when she was an angsty fourth grader in New York City. She found a kind of comfort and coziness in Karen Cushman’s Newbery Honor-winning novel about a spirited 14-year-old living in the year 1290 in the English countryside. There is nothing quite like historical fiction
to light up the imagination of a young girl feeling out of touch with her own moment. As Dunham got older, she found herself relating to more than just Lady Catherine — she empathized with the mother, the nurse, the friend and the older widow. Her adaptation, which she wrote and directed, manages to encompass all of that youthful naivete and hard-earned wisdom in a smart, entertaining package that is both modern and nostalgic and skillfully evokes that coziness that Dunham described feeling so many years ago.
Catherine, or Birdy, is a classic young adult heroine brought beautifully to life by Bella Ramsey, a talented young actor who didn’t get to show off her wonderful comedic chops as Lyanna Mormont on “Game of Thrones.” We’re introduced to Birdy in the waning days of her privileged adolescence, living with her family, her mother Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper), her father Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott), her brother Robert (Dean-Charles Chapman) and her nurse Morwenna (Lesley Sharp) at Stonebridge Manor where the only riches this once great family seems to have left is the value of their titles. She longs to fight in the crusades like her handsome Uncle George (Joe Alwyn) or be a monk like her other brother (who is more fun than most monks, she promises) — basically anything but being a wife and mother which is all she’s allowed to do.
“Catherine Called Birdy,” an Amazon Studios release in theaters Friday and on Prime Video Oct. 7, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “some suggestive material and thematic elements.” Running time: 108 minutes.