Little Wing:  Floating By on Wings and Prayers

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MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:

LITTLE WING follows Kaitlyn, a teen who is reeling from her parents’ divorce and the pending loss of her home. She and her best friend hope to solve her mother’s financial woes by stealing a valuable bird, but Kaitlyn, instead, forms a bond with the owner, that leads her to a new outlook on life.

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REVIEW:

Little Wing is the kind of screenplay that attracts both  young and good old actors despite its flaws. Kaitlyn (Brooklyn Prince) and Jaan (Brian Cox) are thinly designed characters that they can fully inhabit.  

Kaitlyn is a barely teen going through the usual divorcing parents that are the source of most angst in this kind of movie.  Financial woes are forcing an inevitable move from her friends.  She’s given two racing pigeons by her mom’s boss intended to distract from the family drama and set up the rest of the plot and the Little Wing main metaphor: pigeons always return home when released.  The poetic reason- they love their home and bond inseparably tight with that space.  A lunatic caper to steal a champion racing pigeon to raise the money to pay off the house mortgage leads to the main friendship between Jaan (Brian Cox) and Kaitlyn that’s a semi grandfather-granddaughter one.  Cue life lessons and wisdom being formed scenarios. 

Prince gets a leading role suitable for her budding talent.   Cox gets to be month mentor and coach in a role that allows him to chew meaningful on the old man dying of cancer cliches. 

Little Wing never really finds its narrative footing until the last third of the film.  It tries and discards caper film elements, melodrama, understated comedy in the John Hughes vein, neo-modern feminist style, with some teen suicide plotting for social and emotional residence until it realizes that just the birds, the old man and the girl are all they needed for a decent film after all. Left to their own these two finally find something true, endearing in the simple human miracle of connecting.   

Little Wing gets a 3.0/5 or a B.  It’s streaming on Paramont Plus

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CREDITS:

Directed by

Dean Israelite

Written by

John Gatins

Based on

“Little Wing”

by Susan Orlean

Produced by

• Naomi Despres
• John Gatins

Starring

• Brooklynn Prince
• Che Tafari
• Kelly Reilly
• Brian Cox

Cinematography

Jeff Cutter

Edited by

Martin Bernfeld

Music by

Anne Nikitin

Production

company

Awesomeness Films

Distributed by

Paramount+

Release date

• March 13, 2024

Running time

99 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

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