No penguins appear in the new Netflix weepie Penguin Bloom, and a cynical person can assume that such a misleading title must have been generated by the company’s algorithm (with Flower played to remind older viewers of Bloom County and his beloved penguin character, Opus). In fact, the film was adapted from an Australian memoir of the same name, although the American publisher of the book initially opted to market it more directly as Penguin, the catch: The strange little bird that saved a family. Written by photographer Cameron Bloom (with Bradley Trevor Greive), and inspired by his family’s popular Instagram account, this bestseller chronicles the distressing and emotional period immediately after his wife, Sam, suffered a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Depressed and discouraged, feeling totally useless, Sam had problems – much more mentally than physically – just to get out of bed in the morning … until one of his three children found a baby caught that had fallen out of the nest and brought “ Penguin ”(So called for its black and white plumage) to look after it.
Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln play Sam and Cam on the screen, but Penguin flowertrue stars of it is the various trained magpies playing Penguin (complemented by occasional CG bird actions). The Blooms don’t keep their new friend in a cage, allowing him to roam around the house freely; Magpies (and corvids in general) are arguably the most intelligent non-mammalian animals, and it’s fun for a while to watch this steal tea bags from people’s mugs and grow up attached to one of the children’s plush toys. But screenwriters Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps make the parallels between woman and bird so insultingly explicit that director Glendyn Ivin may well have added an animated light bulb repeatedly lighting over Sam’s head as she watches Penguin grow and flourish. Her first successful flight convinces her to try canoeing, a sport that does not require the use of legs. (Sam in real life won competitions.) A fight between Sam and his mother (Jacki Weaver), who keeps treating her like a burden, is interrupted by the sound of Penguin being attacked by other magpies. The film doesn’t stop treating you like an idiot.
Because Watts is a talented actor, Penguin flower sometimes it conveys the emotional trials of paraplegia – the frustration of no longer being able to perform simple tasks that you have always considered certain, the sometimes maddening need to count on the help of others. Even this familiar territory, however (going back at least until 1981‘s Whose life is it, anyway?), and making the film ideal for the family requires that the key aspects are completely unexplored. It is very moving when Cam tells Sam that he considers himself the luckiest man in the world, because the woman he loves has survived a fall that could easily have killed her; viewers curious about how this dedicated couple adapted their sex life to new circumstances, however, will have to keep asking themselves (or watching The sessions), since they never do anything more ardent than holding hands. Penguin also earns nothing, ending up fleeing after apparently having determined that its inspiring example is no longer needed. Seconds before leaving, he returns the plush toy to the child’s bed, thus signifying his own rite of passage. If you’re going to go so far ridiculously, why not let it talk too?