Bird Box Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs
Downs...
4. It Wastes Most Of Its Ensemble Cast
Though it's fair to say that Bullock, Malkovich and Moonlight's rising star Trevante Rhodes all get a fair shake here, the overwhelming majority of the film's gigantic - and talented! - ensemble cast gets depressingly little to do.
Sarah Paulson fans should be well aware of what the movie's trailers already made pretty clear: she's in the movie for nothing more than an extended cameo that lasts a matter of minutes.
Elsewhere, the on-the-rise likes of Rosa Salazar and Lil Rel Howery barely make a dent, while acting vets like Tom Hollander, B.D. Wong and Parminder Nagra basically fade into the periphery.
The movie's worst talent-squandering crime, though, has to be keeping Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver almost entirely in the background save for just one mildly memorable moment.
Hell, blink and you'll miss a cameo from Ant-Man and the Wasp star David Dastmalchian, who appears for such a brief, inconsequential period of time you're safe to assume he owed a producer a favour.
Given the embarrassment of acting riches in this film, it's a shame the script couldn't better juggle its sometimes borderline-invisible characters.