'The Starling': An Annoying Bird Pesters A Grieving Melissa McCarthy
Like many other comedians before her, Melissa McCarthy has fluctuated between small-scale dramas and broad studio comedies since her breakout role in Bridesmaids. The quality of those films is all over the place, but McCarthy can shine when she's in the right project – and it sounds like she may have found another winner.
The actress is currently negotiating to star in The Starling, a "comedy grounded with emotion" that will reunite her with her St. Vincent director Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures) and her multi-time co-star Chris O'Dowd. Check out the plot details below.
Deadline has the casting news, as well as a breakdown of the film's story:
A married couple suffers a tragedy that strains their relationship. While her husband heads off to deal with grief in recovery, Lily Maynard stays home. He has built a beautiful garden for her in the backyard, but she finds herself assailed by a sizable black starling that has built a nearby nest. She seeks out a veterinarian to see if there is a humane way to get rid of this bird. That vet, who was a psychiatrist once but shed humans for animals, puts his own imprint on the situation. The film is an allegorical tale of how love can carry one through grief.
While I (thankfully) don't have any experience with devastating family tragedies, I can totally relate to the idea of an annoying bird flitting around and "assailing" passersby. For years, a mockingbird roamed the area just outside my apartment window, loudly shrieking in the dead of night and waking me up on a regular basis. I eventually managed to finally chase it further down the street and out of earshot, but that thing was the bane of my existence for a long time.
In all seriousness, this does sound like a moving story about loss and grief, and I'm hoping McCarthy saw all of the positive reaction to her performance in last year's Can You Ever Forgive Me and is actively choosing to make more movies like that and fewer like The Boss and Tammy. Here's a piece of trivia to tell your friends when this eventually hits theaters: Dome Karukoski (Tolkien) was once attached to direct with Keanu Reeves and Isla Fisher starring.
The script hails from writer Matt Harris, who doesn't have any produced credits to his name yet, but his screenplay for The Starling did make The Black List back in 2005. Deadline says that back then, the script was written for a male lead, but those roles have since been swapped and McCarthy's character will be in the spotlight now.