Gary Newman (Josh Charles) is a Silicon valley engineer in Paris for business. Audrey Camuzet (Anaïs Demoustier) is an University student working as a maid in an airport Hilton where Gary is staying at. Gary has a breakdown. He skips his flight out and resigns from work angering his business partner. He's also leaving his wife Elisabeth (Radha Mitchell) and kids. Then an extraordinary transformation happens to Audrey.First of all, this needs to be condensed. Parts of this is as compelling as watching surveillance video. I'm not advocating rushing this but it needs to be faster than a meditation. It's also static at times. Gary's confrontation with his wife is visually static but it is filled with tension. That's not always the case. This movie often lacks tension. There is a big change in the second half of the movie. It's a head scratcher. While it's interesting, I wonder what's the point. It lacks direction and it's also very odd that Gary is rarely in the second half. There is only one scene where there is any tension in that second half and that cat really scared me for a second. I doubt that I could recommend this to anyone but at least, it does something different.

I'm debating with myself how many points I should give this film. The lowest score, a "1", feels too low,given the production values and on rare occasion interesting scenes. However, if the lowest score can stop someone from watching the film, then it is definitely worth it, because 20 minutes into the thing I wanted to get up from my seat and leave the theater. Firstly, Bird People is boring. There are two main characters in the film. One of the two, Gary the American decides to change his life dramatically. But there is no real investment into his character before this big change takes place. The audience gets left out and it is hard to give a damn about Gary, which is especially true during the "so bad it's funny"- skype breakup scene. Add really hammy acting and dumb dialogue to the mix and you have a complete train wreck of a first hour.The other character, Audrey, is marginally more interesting. But before the film has time to really draw you in - SURPRISE, Audrey turns into a bird! Yes, she really morphs into a bid. The rest of the film is like a cross between a Disney film and an ad for Marlboro Cigarettes. I understand the connection between becoming a bird vs freeing yourself from work and relationships. But it is so overstated and ridiculous that any value the film might have had flutters away. And the ending scene just stinks.

The stars look different and just the sunlight is more beautiful when we fly away from our lives, even for a moment. "Beauty surrounds us," Rumi writes "but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it." Audrey and Gary are not quite birds of a feather. They are strangers to each other. Yet each of them goes through a similar transformation and dramatic shift in perspective. Their eyes open to new opportunities, as with Cinderella, after dreams or realizations of wonder. Audrey is a young hotel maid appreciating just how much the world is open to her. Gary is an American traveling in Paris on business who abruptly, and in a computer message, calls it quits on his wife, kids and job. With capable acting and directing, and superb writing, the film unravels slowly. At times a little too slowly. Is it really necessary, for the sake of the plot, to see Audrey light up and smoke almost the entire length of cigarette? As the film unwound I began to suspect and understand the reasons for the plodding pace. It is for us, and the characters, to ponder the intricacies of their lives, the possibilities of their newfound and limitless horizons, and more. Still, the next time someone breaks out a pack of cigarettes in a French film, I am going to walk around the block, read a book chapter or something, and return to the theater to see them on their last puffs in front of the same window. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

An interesting and fascinating film that takes place in Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport area. The fates of two people. First, an American businessman who suddenly decides to quit everything around him: his job, his wife, his kids, everything. Just like that, pffft...And in second we observe the daily burden of an ordinary hotel room maid who also have some existential problems, a Young female who have many questions in her life to answer to...Two people through with many things.And the line between those two is a little cute bird...Just that.A sort of fairy tale, but also very interesting to think about after watching it.