Film: White Bird
Cast: Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, Bryce Gheisar, Gillian Anderson, Helen Mirren, Jo Stone-Fewings, Patsy Ferran, Stuart McQuarrie
Director: Marc Forster
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 120 min

A fairly moving tale about kindness during Nazi brutality, this film is an adaptation of a YA graphic novel, “Wonder Story” by R.J. Palacio.

A largely period set-up, this film has Helen Mirren playing a glorified cameo as the older woman who was once a young Jewish girl, Sara, caught in the crossfires of Hitlers Progrom in Nazi- Occupied France. Grandmere, as she is now referred to, tells her poignant story to her grandson, a highschooler, Julian Albans (Bryce Gheisar) who was suspended from Beecher Prep for being a bully. She is obviously trying to highlight her own survival during that dastardly period because of the kindness of a French family and their son, her schoolmate, who took great risks to keep her safe. Her grandson’s eventual capitulation doesn’t ring true or work up any emotion though.