Break ups are never easy, especially when the person you’re breaking up with is an abusive and sociopathic criminal mastermind like the Joker.
So it’s no surprise that Birds of Prey (and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn) opens with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) sad and dejected, crying on her couch with a mouthful of spray cheese.
Yes, the ultimate Gotham City pair has consciously uncoupled and that means Harley is now number one on the hit-list of every goon she’s ever wronged – they can finally come and get her now that she’s not under Mister J’s protection.
They chase her all over town in a timeline that moves forward at a breakneck pace, rewinds and picks up a week ago, and then jumps 20 minutes into the future faster than you can blink.
During all of this timeline jumping we meet a few key players – a frustrated cop played by Rosie Perez, the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the Canary (Jurnee Smollet) and a young pickpocket named Cassandra (Ella Jay Basco). These women will eventually team up to form a girl gang the likes of which we’ve never seen.
Ewan McGregor and Chris Messina star as the resident bad guy and bad guy sidekick and more than hold their own when it comes to insane, violent and madcap fun.
Birds of Prey favours style over substance, but the style is so well done you don’t really miss the substance. It’s the opposite of the Joker – there’s no deep examination of Harley’s motivations for being bad – she simply is, and because her badness is candy coloured, full of glitter and set to a poppy soundtrack it’s easy and fun to accept.
The overwhelming aesthetics of the film; the bold colours, the non-stop action, the manic pace of 12 things happening at once leave you entranced – even during the slower moments early on.
Whereas Suicide Squad didn’t really know what to do with Harley, other than follow her lasciviously with the camera for close ups of her tiny T-shirts, Birds of Prey winds her up, fills her full of cocaine, and sets her free to whirl as fast and as wildly as she can. And it’s mesmerizing.
Margot Robbie continues to prove there is nothing she can’t do and it’s virtually impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.
The film isn’t perfect. Despite being overwhelming in its visuals I was left with the feeling of wanting MORE – more fast-paced plot, more time with the ladies all together (full disclosure, they only form their gang in the last 30 minutes and the film is weaker for it), more snappy dialogue and a more grounded sense of its snarky tone.
The filmmakers went all in on stylized aesthetics and I wish they’d committed as wholeheartedly to other aspects of the craft.
Sometimes, the most cheated we feel as a viewer is when a film that should have been great ends up being only good. That’s the case here.
The good news is a sequel is inevitable, and Birds of Prey is a fantastically strong jumping off point for a new favourite girl gang.
Vicky Sparks is a Bright’s Grove native and movie critic for Global TV’s The Morning Show, which airs nationally on Fridays. Journal Reviews cover movies playing at Galaxy Cinemas Sarnia