one of my absolute favorites!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Ornithology is a sorta hobby for me, and at least in the beginning of the movie the movie delivers - it is beautifully shot and there are some great shots of some beautiful country and beautiful birds as well.But then the movie descends into this art house nonsense, and I was pretty irritated that I had invested my time in what turned out to be some sad statement.Typical. I don't really care about the story's point of view, honestly I'm pretty irritated that Netflix recommended it 'based on' my like of another movie that was a very good mystery/thriller... this is nothing at all like that. Its just a meandering bit of nonsense trying to drive home an old point that I get and could care less about - get over it.

Came across this accidentally perusing new additions at Netflix. I hate to say it, because I like technical aspects of the film, but after a few minutes in when oddly misplaced Chinese girls tie the apparent Portuguese protagonist up I watched the remainder mainly as a geographical documentary.Confused? Read some of the other comments here. I haven't the heart to reprise scene after scene that to me make absolutely no sense. An element of suspense becomes moot when the viewer realizes there is no "there" there. Sexual innuendo abounds. The whole thing is manipulation pure and simple. Apart from the geography, that is. The nearest place I have actually visited is Galicia to the north, and I had no idea there was such an amazing back country, replete with virgin forests, whitewater rapids, fantastic rock falls, and fjord-like bodies of water.Mind you, I think it is worth watching again for some great camera takes. But ornithology it isn't. Nor is it clearly associated with St. Anthony of Padua (Padova) except for an obvious chord of someone lost and found...unless the viewer is moved to discover religious symbolism in ordinary natural phenomena.

When I came out of The Ornithologist I was totally perplexed and unsure of what I had just seen. At one point I thought it was a film about one man's descent into madness, at another I thought it was a tale of the mystery and spirituality of nature and the unknown, a film about loneliness and despair, then I thought maybe it was a character study of queerness and male sexuality. For all I know this film could be all of these things or none of them whatsoever.Because I don't want to spoil anything - and because I can't describe what happens in this film without sounding like a lunatic, I'll say this: the film follows a solitary Ornithologist who gets lost in the forest and the increasingly strange things that happen to him as he tries to find his way home.Funnily enough, The Ornithologist plays almost like a parody of an art-house film - and like most art-house, this is not a film for everyone. Consider yourself warned. In terms of its structure, the unfolding of its narrative as well as the way it uses images and sounds to unnerve and to hypnotize you - this is either going to infuriate or bewitch viewers. I can happily say that I was completely bewitched. I fell under its spell, it got under my skin in a way that I cannot describe and I couldn't stop thinking about it after I saw it. I am under no illusion that I understand most of what I saw, but watching it I could tell that this is exactly the film that director João Pedro Rodrigues wanted to make - it makes no compromises for anybody.The Ornithologist is daring and strange - there are so many unanswered questions, and I couldn't possibly explain to you what it's about or what happens without sounding certifiably insane, but I am so fine with that - I was completely mesmerized. Give it a chance; you might hate it with every fiber of your being or you might love it and be as enchanted by it as I was.

The movie is about a bird watcher out on a camping trip doing his thing when his raft boat crashes in the woods forcing him to struggle to get out while some odd things are happening.It was a pretty awesome adventure, as the The Ornithologist would encounter stranger and stranger things, like two good Christian Chinese girls who wanted to offer him to the evil spirits in the forest and a group of topless girls on horseback in a hunting tribe.Thought it was cool watching this dude survive his odd wilderness experience, but I must admit, my mind is not as open as I thought as there was a naked man on naked man sex scene that I could not watch. I scene other movies where two dudes kiss and have sex but I don't think I've ever seen two men full frontal naked getting romantic. If it makes me seem unenlightened that I had to keep my head turned the whole time then so be it, cause I had too. It was funny cause the scene walks you into to it very easy but still could not take it.But I did like the movie. I thought it was a great adventure movie about a guy in the wilderness. Hopefully it has also soften me to men or men love scenes just in case it comes up again.http://cinemagardens.com