Marc Forster’s new film “White Bird” presents its well-intentioned tale in a way so rote and manipulative that I felt like shaking my head more than once during my viewing. As another typical Holocaust drama flick, it does not bring anything particular new or interesting to its old genre territory, and it is also hampered a lot by the superficial handling of story and characters without much human depth or insight to be observed and then appreciated.

The movie is based on R.J. Palacio’s 2019 graphic novel “White Bird: A Wonder Story”, which is incidentally a spin-off work to Palacio’s 2012 children’s novel “Wonder”. As many of you know, that novel was subsequently adapted into the 2017 feature film, and, if you watched that movie, you probably remember Julien (Bryce Gheisar), that young prick who got deservedly expelled for cruelly bullying the young hero of that movie.

At the beginning of “White Bird”, Julien is recently transferred to a new school, and now he finds himself struggling a lot in adjusting himself to a new environment. After his another difficult school day is over and then he returns to his family residence, he is surprised by the visit of her Jewish grandmother Sara (Helen Mirren), and, after seeing that her grandson still does not learn that much from why he got himself expelled, she is ready to tell him a very important life story for the first time. 

As Julien listens to his grandmother’s story, the movie moves back to a little rural French village in the middle of the World War II era, and we are introduced to young Sara (Ariella Glaser) and her loving Jewish parents. When she was very young, everything felt fine and well to Sara, but, of course, she becomes aware of how things are getting worse in her little world due to the Nazi Germany occupation of France, and her parents are often despaired and frustrated as realizing more of how they become more helpless and cornered along with their dear daughter.

In the end, there comes a point where Sara’s parents begin to prepare for escape, but, alas, their situation becomes much worse than expected within a very short time. Not long after Sara begins another school day on one day during the winter of 1942, a bunch of German soldiers suddenly burst into her school, and Sara manages to escape thanks to a young boy named, surprise, Julien (Orlando Schwerdt). She did not pay much attention to him along with many other classmates just because he is physically disabled by polio, but he is now the only one on whom she can depend for survival, and Julien chooses to save and protect Sara along with his parents, because, well, that is the right thing to do for any decent human being.   

What follows next will not surprise you much if you have ever read “The Diary of a Young Girl” written by Anne Frank. As the village is disturbed more and more by those evil Nazi soldiers and a number of despicable collaborators including a vicious local boy with whom Sara was once smitten, Julien and his parents became more cautious about what they are courageously doing for Sara, and Sara feels more desperate and lonely day by day in her secret hiding place, while also hoping for the day when she will be finally free and safe. 

Not so surprisingly, Sara comes to lean more on Julien as they spend more time together in private, and he does not mind this at all because he has been carrying a torch for her as already shown to us around the beginning of the story. While frequently aware of the serious danger surrounding them, they cannot help but feel happy as forming more connection and solidarity between them, and then we get a sentimental sequence where they try a bit of imagination game together inside Sara’s hiding place.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that their circumstance inevitably takes a dark turn later in the story, and that is where the movie stumbles more than once. The adapted screenplay by Mark Bomback fails to develop its archetype main characters into real human figures we can really care about, and the last act of the story is quite ham-fisted to say the least for a number of blatant plot contrivances. For example, it is apparent from the start that the aforementioned bully in the story will function as the main villain of the story, but he is more or less than a walking plot element solely existing for generating more anger and suspense, and I was also quite disappointed with how this loathsome bastard eventually gets punished as expected (Is this a spoiler, folks?).

The main cast members of the film try to sell their rather bland characters as much as possible. Ariella Glaser and Orlando Schwerdt are mostly engaging, but they are often limited by their thin parts, and the same thing can be said about Gillian Anderson, who is often wasted as only requiring to look gentle and compassionate throughout the film. In case of Bryce Gheisar, he looks engaged at least when his character is supposed to be listening to Helen Mirren’s, and Mirren certainly brings some class and dignity to her functional character.         

In conclusion, “White Bird” feels rather hollow and banal compared to “Wonder” while also failing a lot in its genre category. Sure, every movie associated with the Holocaust does not always have to be as great as, say, “Schindler’s List” (1993) or “The Zone of Interest” (2023), but “White Bird” is quite underwhelming in one way or another without leaving much impression on us, and now I sincerely want to recommend you Louis Malle’s great film “Au Revoir les Enfants” (1987) instead right now. Believe me, you will thank me if you watch that haunting World War II drama film later.