Paulie

Paulie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Roberts
Produced by	Mark Gordon Gary Levinsohn Allyson Lyon Segan
Written by	Laurie Craig
Starring	Jay Mohr Tony Shalhoub Gena Rowlands Hallie Eisenberg Cheech Marin Bruce Davison Trini Alvarado
Narrated by	Jay Mohr
Music by	John Debney
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited by	Bruce Cannon
Production company	Mutual Film Company
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates	April 17, 1998 (1998-04-17)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$27,084,499[1]

Paulie is a 1998 film about a disobedient bird named Paulie, starring Tony Shalhoub, Gena Rowlands, Hallie Eisenberg, and Jay Mohr. Mohr performs the voice of Paulie and plays a minor on-screen character.

Plot

The film is a picaresque tale about an intelligent talking blue-crowned conure named Paulie and his long quest to return to his owner.

Misha Belenkoff (Tony Shalhoub), a Russian immigrant and former teacher of literature, is living in America and working as a janitor at an animal testing lab. There he encounters Paulie and is shocked to see him talk in English, and that too perfectly. However, Paulie does not speak a word when Misha brings others to witness a talking bird.

Misha woos Paulie to tell his story by offering him pieces of mango as he had found out about conures' eating habits. He tells Misha about his master, a little girl named Marie (Hallie Eisenberg) who was a stutterer. The story goes into flashback. He is a baby bird. As Marie learns to speak, so does he, and he learns well, understanding the meaning of words and learning to construct complex sentences. Soon Marie's father, Warren (Matt Craven), who's a soldier, returns home from Vietnam. However, he does not like Paulie and believes he's not helping her to speak. It's believed he resented Paulie for his closeness to her instead of him and that he was able to help her speak when none of his methods worked.

It becomes very obvious that he wants Marie to forget Paulie when he brings her a cat. It's also obvious that the cat and Paulie don't get along either, mainly because he's afraid of it. It tries a few times to attack him. However, again Warren blames him for Marie's speaking problems and believes she's in a fantasy about him speaking. Eventually after a dramatic event in which she falls off the roof in an attempt to teach him to fly, he convinces her mother, Lila (Laura Harrington), to send him away.

Paulie is passed from one owner to another, eventually ending up in a pawn shop, where he spends his time insulting the customers, until he is purchased by a widowed artist named Ivy (Gena Rowlands). She befriends him and agrees to take him to find Marie, who has moved across the country to Los Angeles. Ivy loses her sight and Paulie decides to stay and take care of her, but this is cut short when she dies one day and is taken away while he, having finally learned to fly, continues his journey.

In East Los Angeles, Paulie joins a group of performing conures owned by Ignacio (Cheech Marin), but is kidnapped by Benny (Jay Mohr) and begins a life of crime. In a botched jewel theft, Paulie flies down through the chimney of a house, but is trapped inside and abandoned.

Paulie is then brought to the institute, his current home, where employees and scientists are stunned by his intelligence. They put him through tests and promise that he will be reunited with Marie. When he discovers that they lied to him, he refuses to cooperate with any more tests. His wings are clipped, and he is imprisoned in the basement.

Moved by Paulie's story, Misha decides to give up his menial job to release Paulie and take him to Marie. After escaping from the institute and taking a bus to her address, they find her, now full grown and a beautiful young woman (Trini Alvarado) and unrecognizable to him. After a moment of confusion, they are happily reunited when she sings his favorite song and he remembers her, flying with joy. The film ends with her and Misha going into her house with Paulie to catch up.

Cast

• Jay Mohr as the voice of Paulie, a blue-crowned conure, and Benny
• Tony Shalhoub as Misha, a recent US immigrant from East Europe
• Gena Rowlands as Ivy, a widowed artist
• Hallie Eisenberg as Marie Alweather, a young girl who's a stutterer
• Cheech Marin as Ignacio, an entertainer
• Bruce Davison as Dr. Reingold, a biological research scientist
• Trini Alvarado as Adult Marie
• Buddy Hackett as Artie, owner of a pawn shop
• Matt Craven as Warren Alweather
• Bill Cobbs as Virgil
• Tia Texada as Ruby and the voice of Lupe, a Jandaya parakeet
• Laura Harrington as Lila Alweather
• Jerry Winsett as Mr. Tauper

Production

The film's production budget was 23 million US dollars.^[2]

Reception

Paulie was well received. As of April 2015, the movie has scored a 62% or 6.2/10 rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

It was distributed in 24 countries and 10 different languages between 1998 and 1999.

Paulie was a minor success at the box office, grossing $5,369,800 on its opening weekend, and $26,875,268 USD altogether.^[3] It was released in 1,812 North American theaters.^[2]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Paulie at the Internet Movie Database
• Paulie at Rotten Tomatoes
• Paulie at Box Office Mojo
• A bird's review of the movie