''Love Birds'' is a 2011 New Zealand

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film starring the New Zealand stand-up comedian

Rhys Darby Rhys Montague Darby (born 21 March 1974) is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for ...

and the Golden Globe winner

Sally Hawkins Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award and the Berlin International Film Festival's Silver Bear fo ...

. It was directed by Paul Murphy and written by Nick Ward. It was released on 24 February 2011.

Plot

Doug (

) lives in the perfect no worry world but his life shatters when long-term girlfriend Susan ( Faye Smythe) dumps him. Doug discovers an injured

paradise shelduck The paradise shelduck (''Tadorna variegata''), also known as the paradise duck, or in Māori, is a species of shelduck, a group of goose-like ducks, which is endemic to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin placed it in the genus ''Anas'' with ...

and starts to nurse it back to health. This new found motivation propels him into a new journey in his life which causes him to fall in love with veterinarian Holly (

). The path to love is never easy and just when you think you have a handle on it, it takes flight. Susan comes back into Doug's life, and he must learn a valuable lesson: lean on his friends and follow his heart.

Cast

as Doug *

as Holly *

Emily Barclay Emily Barclay (born 24 October 1984) is an English-born, New Zealander and Australian AFI award winning actress. Career Emily Barclay was born in Plymouth to a General practitioner and a landscape designer, and raised in Auckland, New Zealan ...

as Brenda * Craig Hall as Craig *

Bryan Brown Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include '' Breaker Morant'' (1980), ...

as Dr Buster * Dave Fane as Kanga * Faye Smythe as Susan * Wesley Dowdell as Brett * Alvin Maharaj as Gurneesh *

Allan Border Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test ma ...

and

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

: Cricket Comentators

Critical reception

''Love Birds'' received mixed reviews on release with Kate Rodger of TV3 saying the story "feels a little laboured, as does the humour" and giving it 2½ stars out of five. However, Russell Baillie of the ''New Zealand Herald'' praised the film, giving it 4 out of 5, and calling it an "endearingly funny, if sugar-coated local romantic comedy". Graeme Tuckett of ''The Dominion Post'' also gave the film 4 out of 5 writing, "Love Birds does what it does just fine. There is Queen on the soundtrack, love in the air, and quite probably a smile on your face as the credits roll." Despite the film's overall mixed reviews, Darby received an overwhelmingly positive reception with reviewers quoted as saying, "Rhys Darby steals the show again, but in a very different role to what we are used to seeing him play. He plays the relatively straight role of a typical Kiwi bloke, but there is no hiding the charm and likeability he brings to the big screen." and "He's an affable, believable and extremely convincing lead - and based on this alone, he's destined for even greater things."

Notes

The film is accompanied by the music of the rock band

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

(including "Somebody to love", "

Who Wants to Live Forever "Who Wants to Live Forever" is a song by the British rock band Queen. A power ballad, it is the sixth track on the album '' A Kind of Magic'', which was released in June 1986, and was written by lead guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to t ...

", "

Bicycle Race "Bicycle Race" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album ''Jazz'' and written by Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury. It was released as a double A-side single together with the song " Fat Bottomed Girls", rea ...

" and "Flash"). In the credits, all of the actors from the film dance, sing and play music to the playback of the Queen song "

Princes of the Universe "Princes of the Universe" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by the British rock band Queen, originally released as a single in the United States on March 12, 1986 via Capitol Records. The song was written for the film '' Highl ...

", title song for the film '' Highlander'' and the television series of the same name.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1636539, Love Birds 2011 films New Zealand romantic comedy films 2010s English-language films