Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd Have Wings Clipped by

Sometimes issues aren’t at all times what they appear: “The Starling,” for instance, is an impressively-credited drama that premiered on the prestigious Toronto Film Festival on its solution to Netflix. So viewers could also be shocked to search out they’ve occurred upon a film that will really feel way more at residence on the Hallmark Channel.

Then once more, generally issues are precisely what they appear. And in practically each different approach, predictability defines Ted Melfi’s disappointing follow-up to his widely-admired Oscar nominee “Hidden Figures” and his enjoyably prickly indie “St. Vincent.”

Just as its title proclaims, “The Starling” is all about studying to fly. This more and more blunt metaphor contains an precise avian, who swoops by means of the opening credit in a clunky impact that concurrently recollects the plastic bag from “American Beauty” and the “Forrest Gump” feather.

The chicken is finally introduced right down to earth, however it’s not the one one. Also grounded are Lilly (Melissa McCarthy) and Jack (Chris O’Dowd), who’re nonetheless reeling from the lack of their child daughter a 12 months earlier. Jack appears to have been hit hardest, since he’s residing alone in a psychological well being facility that Lilly visits weekly for household remedy classes. When she’s not there, she works listlessly at a grocery store, gardens of their farmhouse yard, and begins remedy herself with a veterinarian named Larry (Kevin Kline). It doesn’t actually make sense that Larry can be a psychologist, however it’s handy as a result of Lilly shortly develops a relationship with the starling in her backyard.

The chicken is each territorial and adversarial, however extra vital is the truth that it’s tending to its personal infants. When Lilly loses a bit sock from her daughter, you possibly can guess it should flip up in a nest. When the chicken will get sick, you possibly can guess Lilly will attempt to nurse it again to well being. And if the chicken can heal, you possibly can guess the people will comply with.

Sorry, is that too many spoilers? Only for those who’ve by no means seen a film like this earlier than — which is unlikely as a result of there are so very many films identical to this one on the earth.

“The Starling” does have a notable benefit, boasting the kind of solid that may burnish a generic challenge with professional sheen. O’Dowd does this greatest, brushing previous the shallow sentimentality of Matt Harris’ script — which appeared on Hollywood’s Black List again in 2005 — to faucet into some actual emotion. Jack walks as if the world’s burdens are weighing him down, his eyes barely targeted as a result of he is aware of there’s nothing on the market value .

McCarthy works simply as laborious, however she has the tougher activity. Indeed, it’s irritating figuring out how good she is at drama to see her so hemmed in. More character than human, Lilly feels very very similar to a author’s invention. She’s somebody who connects with a chicken as she’s spreading her personal wings, who mows an overgrown garden when she’s contemplating a recent begin, harvesting her backyard when she’s lastly prepared to start out anew.

As for Kline, he might painting a gruffly smart charmer in his sleep — and it’s honest to say he’s not requested to do far more. He and McCarthy play off one another effectively, however they merely don’t have sufficient to work with. The identical is true for the barely-present supporting solid, too. Why rent professionals like Loretta Devine, Timothy Olyphant and Daveed Diggs for those who’re not going to offer them something attention-grabbing to do?   

The crew can be full of underused veterans. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher, whose resume spans from “Garden State” to “Godzilla” to “Joker,” is required to pair his work to the movie’s deeply standard tone. He frames each scene simply so, which fits the general structural artifice however can’t improve it. Music supervisor Julia Michels (“A Star Is Born”) commissioned new songs from Brandi Carlile and The Lumineers, however the…