In the present day, a businessman, Michael Kingley (Geoffrey Rush), is poised to make a deal with the devil — in this case, a mining company — that would decimate his home’s natural ecosystem. His granddaughter (Morgana Davies) urges him to reconsider, spurring Michael to tell her about his childhood. He recalls his youth on the coast, recounting the time when he was better known as Storm Boy.
Director Shawn Seet flashes between scenes of Michael as an adult and his memories as Storm Boy (Finn Little), a child who lives in seclusion with his father, Hideaway Tom (Jai Courtney). They reside in a shack that sits on land they hope will become a pelican sanctuary, but hunters threaten the purity of the region and kill the birds for sport.
Storm Boy’s loose education comes from his father, leaving him endless time to wander the beach. He finds three chicks orphaned by hunters and decides to raise the birds with the help of his father and Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson), an indigenous Ngarrindjeri who teaches the boy how to care for the land and animals. Storm Boy nurtures the three pelicans, forming a particular connection with a bird he names Mr. Percival, who returns the child’s loyalty beyond all expectations.
“Storm Boy” tries to present itself as a modern fable, where the lessons learned relate directly to present-day concerns over the environment, industrialization and the marginalization of indigenous cultures. But these themes come across as didactic rather than moving. The cinematography is frequently beautiful, in large part because of the majesty of South Australia’s Coorong region, where the movie was shot. But the ham-handed dialogue saps the energy from the images, drawing attention to the thinness of archetypal characters. And the centrality of white characters who learn from a noble native undermines the film’s attempts at political relevance.
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Seet does best when he focuses on the boy with his birds. In keeping with the movie’s environmental themes, Seet uses live pelicans for many scenes, documenting the growth of the birds from bald infancy to their first flight. Largely free from the trappings of treacly dialogue, these scenes place the emphasis where it belongs — on the rather remarkable performance by its misty-eyed child actor and on nature itself.
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Production notes:
“Storm Boy” is rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.