It’s never a bad time for stories celebrating acts of kindness, but the current news cycle makes it ever so more appreciated. In the new film “White Bird,” in theaters Friday, the act is quite significant: A family in Nazi-occupied France shelters a young Jewish girl, whose friends and family have all been taken away.
From German director Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland,” “The Kite Runner”) “White Bird” is a handsome adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s graphic novel aimed at young adults. This, too, is perfectly suited to that audience — a story within a story with all the drama of war and young romance wrapped up in it. Let’s just not overplay the idea that it’s part of some shared cinematic kindness universe with the Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson film “Wonder,” also based on Palacio’s work.
It’s framed as something a grandmother is telling her grandson, who seems to be going down the wrong path. Helen Mirren is said Grandmère, or Sara Blum, a famous artist who opens up to young Julian (Bryce Gheisar) one evening over dinner about what she went through during the war. For being a neglected rich kid who is prone to getting kicked out of fancy private schools, Julian’s immediate, earnest interest in what his Grandmère has to say is perhaps the most unbelievable part of this story, which includes some deus ex machina wolves. It’s a way in, I suppose, and Mirren makes for a lovely narrator.
Ariella Glaser plays young Sara Blum, who leads a nice life in her small French town with educated, professional parents Max (Ishai Golan) and Rose (Olivia Ross). She barely notices the changing tides as the war ramps up, more concerned with her friends and the cute boy in school. The story takes care to note that she barely noticed the classmate that would end up saving her life: Julien (Orlando Schwerdt), who walks with a crutch and whose father works in the sewers. Not, in other words, a popular kid. In an awkward moment, the audience, and Julien, realize that she doesn’t even know his name.
