A beloved old neighbor, who occupies a rent-controlled apartment in a valuable Brooklyn brownstone, suddenly drops dead. Perhaps because she has nothing else to do, Barri (Sophia Takal) posits a murder. Her live-in fiance Noah (Lawrence Michael Levine) is understandably skeptical, though third roomie Jean (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat) is willing to help investigate the implausible crime, mainly because she’s got a crush on Barri. (Noah meanwhile has something going on with his supposedly lesbian boss, played by Annie Parisse, a Law & Order veteran and Mercer Island native.)
With its Bondian credit sequence and comically exaggerated score, Wild Canaries immediately announces itself a wild goose chase. A few bodies pile up (one dismembered) and somebody gets shot, but nothing here—apart from Barri and Noah’s relationship—should be taken too seriously. Barri’s fervid imagination is a generator of plausible premarital doubts: Maybe Noah isn’t the guy for her; possibly Jean is the girl for her; and certainly marriage itself is a dubious institution. (For an example of the latter, she need only look to the downstairs apartment of her friendly/smarmy landlord—an amusing Jason Ritter—and his volatile nest.)
Married filmmakers Takal and Levine have an easy rapport, and they elicit likable performances from all their cast. (Even the villains are hard to hate.) Without being wonky about it, they’re riffing back to the classic age of comic thrillers (think of The Thin Man, Rear Window, or Charade). Sex and violence are mostly displaced here, as in Old Hollywood; they’re the symbolic sparks that attend any two disparate bodies coming together. With her birdlike avidity, the innocent screwball heroine Barri becomes a sleuth—or even voyeur—into others’ unhappy domestic lives. Part of the movie’s charm is that, even after seeing the dark side to married life, she drags everyone around her into the sun.
bmiller@seattleweekly.com
WILD CANARIES Runs Fri., March 6–Thurs., March 12 at Northwest Film Forum. Not rated. 99 minutes. (Note: Takal and Levine will appear at Thursday’s screening.)
