Birdman and the quest for meaning

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I loved “Birdman,” although everybody I talked to didn’t. Maybe they didn’t because it raises a question that makes people uncomfortable: Does my life have meaning?

I think that these days, people measure their lives by how much they are liked. I’m a public high school teacher who recently learned that some students pretend to check text messages during class so their peers will think they are getting a lot of texts. Popularity isn’t important these days. It’s everything.

In “Birdman,” we feel the existential angst of Riggan Thompson, played by Michael Keaton, who is debuting on Broadway after film success as an action hero called Birdman. He’s a success by most people’s standards. People stop him on the street for his autograph. But his celebrity status is unsatisfying.

Now, I’m not an actor, but I’ve always assumed actors are looking for meaning on the stage, trying on other people’s lives in an attempt to understand their own. They want to find the truth. 

Why work for any other purpose?

Riggan is looking for truth in a play adaptation of Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” His attempt to find it is challenged by a fellow actor, played by Ed Norton, whose arrogance extends to thinking only his own acting is “true.”

Norton is so intent on being “real” that he breaks from the script during previews to rail against failures of the cast and script, turning a Broadway opening — critical to Riggan’s comeback — into a potential disaster. Norton tells Riggan that previews are when everyone figures out what the play is about. His attitude upsets Riggan, who needs something more substantial to believe in.

Riggan’s belief in himself, his play and his life is already shaky. Everything in Riggan’s life spells failure: a critic who tells him she’s going to make sure his play flops; a former wife he’s not sure why he left; a daughter he’s not sure how he alienated; a girlfriend whose pregnancy isn’t entirely good news.

Birdman, popularity, Riggan Thompson, Valerie Kaufman
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