Film

The Big Year

Name: The Big Year
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2011
Cast: Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Brian Dennehy, Anjelica Huston

Buddy comedy
Light-hearted

Three middle-aged men compete obsessively across a year to spot the most bird species in North America. It's a gentle, warm comedy about male friendship, ambition, and rediscovering what matters. Funny without being cruel, it celebrates earnest passion and the quiet joy of noticing the world.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like gentle comedies about obsessive hobbyists, where the joke is how seriously people take a pastime and the scenery of birding country does the rest of the work.

Skip it if you want belly laughs or a sharp, plotted comedy; the humour is amiable and mostly low-key, and the stakes stay modest for much of the running time.

What it asks of you: Just under two hours of loosely strung-together travel, cold dawns and long waits, with patience rewarded more often than punchlines; it rarely hurries.

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