(Fox Searchlight)

The opening shot of Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a simple enough one: a static shot of washed up action star Riggan Thomson floating a solid three feet off the ground as he meditates shirtless in his dressing room. The camera then slowly moves with him as he grounds himself and uses apparent telekinetic powers to move objects around. The camera continues to move with him as he leaves the dressing room and wanders down the hall of the Broadway Theater his new play is scheduled to open in. In fact, the camera seems to never cut away from Riggan—or at all—making the entire film appear as a 119-minute tracking shot.

It’s a terribly impressive trick by director/co-writer Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful), but to what effect? The obvious is that it gives an immediate theatrical thematic quality to a film that’s, well, about the theater, but it’s also one of many qualities of Iñárritu’s film that just feel like he’s here to show off. At its core, Birdman is a wonderfully wacky, surreal, bitingly dark comedy about the crossroads of Hollywood and Broadway, but it sometimes gets derailed by Iñárritu’s showmanship.

In a career-defining performance, Michael Keaton stars as Riggan, the over-the-hill action star whose claim to fame is playing the title character in the fictionalized series of Birdman films; a kind of superhero series before Marvel made superhero films cool. It’s been years since Riggan has been relevant in any sense of the word, so he’s trying to mount his comeback as a Very Serious Actor by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Riggan is days away from previews and he’s a nervous mess. His terrible co-lead actor is badly injured in a freak accident that Riggan may or may not be responsible for, his sober daughter/assistant is on the verge of relapse, reporters are bombarding him with loaded questions to get a juicy scoop, and he’s so obsessed with being taken seriously as an actor that he’s quietly pushing everyone close to him away.

(Fox Searchlight)

Riggan thinks he’s found the answer to all his problems with the last minute casting of Broadway critical darling Mike Shiner (Edward Norton)—a no bullshit, egotistic method actor—to replace his injured lead. Mike, as Riggan’s assistant and best friend Jake (Zach Galifianakis) assures him, is like catnip for New York’s brutal theater critics. But things don’t go as planned during previews: Mike has a tantrum on stage in the middle of the performance when he realizes the “gin” his character is drinking is fake; and he causes tension among the cast when, during a bedroom scene with co-star and lover Lesley (Naomi Watts) in a preview performance, he gets an erection and tries to convince her to have sex on stage in front of the entire audience. Thanks to Mike, Riggan’s play, along with his mental state, is falling apart at the seams.

Iñárritu’s film oozes with frenetic energy, fueled by the seemingly never-ending tracking show and the film’s sparse jazz drumming score, courtesy of Antonio Sanchez. Coupled with a terrific ensemble cast—both Norton and, surprisingly, Galifianakis are especially good—Birdman has the potential to be one of the year’s best and most distinct films, but instead certain decisions made by Iñárritu shuffles it into a kind of self-serving, but curiously ambitious, mess.

Throughout the film, Riggan seems to have the actual powers that his superhero alter ego does. He uses telekinesis and flight like they’re not even a big deal when no one else is around. Moreover, he’s continually haunted by a gnawing Birdman voice in the back of his head—kind of like Norman Osborne’s Green Goblin psyche in Spiderman. Does Riggan actually posses these powers? Or is it all in his head, a kind of metaphor for his celebrity? Iñárritu toys with this notion, hinting at the possibility of both, up until the film’s disappointing final frame. But the real question is, why waste so much time on something that’s so periphery to the film’s narrative? That’s a question even Birdman himself can’t answer.

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Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Written by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
With Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief violence
Running time 119 minutes
Opens today at E Street Cinema.