Rare Birds

Story Line: With his marriage moribund and his seashore restaurant failing, depressed Dave Purcell (Hurt) is about ready to throw in the towel. His resourceful neighbor (Jones) comes to the rescue by staging phony sightings of a rare bird, flooding the area with amateur ornithologists.

Bottom Line: A refreshingly different albeit minor comedy, Rare Birds is likely to appeal to viewers who enjoy such films as Waking Ned Devine and American Girls. In such movies, rustic settings and eccentric neighbors go hand in hand, and Hurt's got a beauty in Jones, a slightly larcenous inventor who hopes to patent his RSV (Recreational Submarine Vehicle) and dispose of a fortune in cocaine he salvaged from a smuggler's sunken boat. Edward Riche's script, adapted from his own novel, mixes many ingredients in this heady brew; the use of highly luminous, poster-size sheets of unnamed material--established in what appears to be a throwaway scene--becomes of primary importance in the film's climax. The cocaine, the submarine and even the fate of Dave's restaurant are all but forgotten when a workshop is surrounded by black-suited government operatives who want the mysterious light source. This melodramatic eruption notwithstanding, Rare Birds is delightfully offbeat and should be promoted as such. --Ed Hulse