Catherine Called Birdy Review

Medieval throes and disease are all the better when Andrew Scott and Billie Piper are present for them. Director Lena Dunham finds that with Catherine Called Birdy, a feature that sees Bella Ramsey tackle the tough task of a leading role. As typically horrible as the Medieval Age was, the light-hearted elements of Catherine Called Birdy come through a fight against systematic troubles that were considered the norm of the era. That light-heartedness comes with a cost though, of mud fight openings shown to be the delights of the common folk. Mud fights aren’t the issue, but the colourful saturation is, and it gives Catherine Called Birdy a murky and troubled visual spectrum to play with.

Fancy castles contrast with the freedom of the outer walls is the clear plan for Dunham’s work here. Catherine Called Birdy relies on Ramsey, a harsh task for such a newcomer, but it is reassuring to see how confident a role it is. Despite that, there is a muddled perception of what younger audiences may want. A tad too Enola Holmes, a bit more reliant on the typical structure of a film like Flora & Ulysses. Toothless and fun bits of light entertainment feature watered-down colouring and intensely strange plot diversions. Enola Holmes catering to younger audiences and featuring a spin-off of Sherlock Holmes was an inspiringly strange script that just couldn’t get it together. Catherine Called Birdy has the same problem.

Yet although Enola Holmes was a dullard piece, Catherine Called Birdy is frustrating because it is clear to see where the highlights come through, and how Dunham fails to adapt them. If an audience is to be treated with maturity and given the passing of a torch to the next era of their experiences with film, Catherine Called Birdy is a difficult and obnoxious mixture of childish tropes and heavyset material. Scott and Piper are great, but they are surprising inclusions for a piece that features such lukewarm scriptwriting. Seeing the pair on-screen is a delight and a real treat for their minimal parts in this piece, but relying on Ramsey and featuring such a royal screw-up of a script and technical barrage is unfortunate.

Aspects of Catherine Called Birdy feel more equated to a piece made for British television. A miniseries of simplicity, with the shot-reverse-shot quick edits of the second act and the still camera mixed up with the ever-so-shaky close-ups of key characters a real understanding of the target audience. A happy ending for everyone is expected but not deserved. The colourful and bright charms of the fancy fabrics and wild garbs of wedding day fun are muted and unnatural. Everything explored within Catherine Called Birdy is done with inconsequential demand for the story, and begrudgingly so. The happiest of scenes feel bereft of life, the loudest and most feral and animated of moments still feel weak and uneven. Not even David Bradley’s appearance can do much to weather the corruptible, dull storm of this medieval horror show that relies more on modern pop needle drops than it does anything else to flesh out its characters.