‘The Big Year’ never takes flight

October 14, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

‘THE BIG YEAR’

Grade: C

Cast: Steve Martin (Stu Preissler), Jack Black (Brad Harris) and Owen Wilson (Kenny Bostick)

Credits: Directed by David Frankel, written by Howard Franklin

Running time: 1:39

MPAA Rating: PG, for language and some sensuality

Movie

The Big Year

Three disparate men, each facing unique personal challenges, try to outdo each other in the ultimate bird-watching competition in 1998 -- the year El Nino brought an unprecedented number of species to North America. Their quest takes them on an unforgettable trek throughout North America.

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By Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

“The Big Year” is a comedy about competitive bird-watching. It stars three of the biggest stars from two generations of screen comedy — Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black.

Considering this cast, it’s not particularly wacky. That’s in keeping with the source material, reporter Mark Obmascik’s lightly amusing book about three obsessed and very different birders piling up the numbers in the biggest birding year ever.

What director David Frankel does manage is a gentle amiability, much like this “honor system” contest it depicts.

Take Brad (Black). He’s an overweight computer code-cruncher for a nuclear power plant who spends all his spare time and all his cash — and then some — birding.

Then there’s Stu (Steve Martin). He’s a company president ready to retire just so he can leave behind his wife (Jobeth Williams) and their stunning Aspen estate to spend a year chasing birds. His underlings (Kevin Pollack, Joel McHale) don’t want him to leave in the middle of a big deal, but Stu is determined.

Is he as determined as Kenny (Owen Wilson), a wealthy contractor who holds the current ”big year” record? Kenny knows all the tricks and is something of a swaggering, insufferable rock star in birder circles. And he’s so anxious to hang onto his record that he plans to travel anywhere, anytime, to better that record, o matter how much his wife (Rosamund Pike) wants a baby.

Kenny is conniving and the moment he finds out others are going for a big year, he gets in their heads. As they dash from Texas to Alaska, Minnesota to Key West, the guys raise their scores, empty their bank accounts and question what they’re doing.

I like the way the Beatles’ “Blackbird” is woven into the score, though that little ditty seems to set the tone here. There’s no urgency, not enough energy to lift “The Big Year” above a fairly dry account of an odd subculture in our midst. It’s OK to say “Golf is just a hobby,” while birding “is a calling.” But this is a movie. You need to show why.