Don’t let the involvement of Lena Dunham put you off, writes Catherine McGregor. Her new movie is a comedy anyone can love.
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The lowdown
The place: Lincoln, England. The date: 1290. Fourteen-year-old Lady Catherine, Birdy to her friends, enjoys a life of carelessness and freedom until her family’s dire financial situation (and the arrival of Birdy’s periods) propels her unwillingly towards marriage. Based on the beloved YA novel by Karen Cushman, Catherine Called Birdy (the comma seems to have fallen by the wayside during the transition from book to film) is a comic coming-of-age story told through the pages of Birdy’s diary.
It’s also written and directed by Lena Dunham, she of Girls and a number of questionable tweets. If that puts you off (I admit, it did for me) don’t worry: Dunham does an exceptional job of bringing Cushman’s characters vibrantly to life.
The good
Not so long ago (OK, last week) I wrote that I was getting sick of period-set productions that were wildly, proudly anachronistic. And then along came Catherine Called Birdy and suddenly I’m a fan.
Turns out, dropping modern language, attitudes and music into a historical setting is great – when it’s done with such gleeful abandon as this. The big difference, of course, is that Catherine Called Birdy is played for laughs; it draws its inspiration not from classic novels, but from anarchic, loosely “historic” comedies like Blackadder, Norsemen and the kids’ series Horrible Histories.
That means lots of good jokes about the time period – Birdy can think of nothing more fun than attending the local hanging, and can’t spin yarn however hard she tries. It also makes it unafraid to get down in the dirt – quite literally in the case of the mud fight that opens the movie (“And to think I just bathed you a fortnight ago,” sighs Birdy’s nursemaid. “What a waste!”) – with plenty of gross-out sight gags and era-appropriate farting.
Everyone in the movie seems to be having the time of their lives. Andrew Scott (Fleabag’s Hot Priest) is his usual louche self, playing Birdy’s father as a self-destructive charmer whose money troubles are forcing his daughter into marriage. Paul Kaye is marvellously repulsive as Birdy’s suitor Shaggy Beard, and Sophie Okonedo is unexpectedly affecting as a pushy widow with hidden depths. A special shout out to David Bradley (Game of Thrones’ Walder Frey), who does “nasty old man” like few other actors working today.
Still no one in the cast comes close to Bella Ramsey as the lovable Birdy. Her pint-sized Lyanna Mormont was an instant fan favourite the moment she arrived on Game of Thrones – a picture of her scowling face was my own Slack avatar for over a year – and she brings that same fierceness to Birdy, another headstrong girl struggling against the strictures of medieval life. Ramsey is an extraordinarily physical performer, whether throwing herself around the room while describing how babies are made (she’s convinced it involves a poker in the nostrils) or play-fighting with her friends – head down, hunched over, looking more like one of the goats her friend Perkin tends than a young lady of the manor. Ramsey carries the movie, and is an exuberant delight from start to finish.
The not-so-good
Billie Piper is perfectly fine as Birdy’s angelic mother Lady Aislinn. But she’s either heavily pregnant, having babies, or caring for babies almost the entire time. In a movie full of big, eccentric characters, Piper shrinks into the background.
The verdict
A charming comedy about family, friendship and a teenage girl determined to go her own way. Love Lena Dunham or hate her, there’s no denying Catherine Called Birdy is a triumph.
