“lady bird” movie review

If you are a mother or a daughter, you will absolutely love and relate to Lady Bird. In fact, it just may be the mother of all mother-daughter movies.

Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are perfection in this relationship which writer/director Greta Gerwig nails with dialogue that rings so true, you just may be transported back to one of the (many) times when you had a similar conversation/fight/lovefest with your own mother or daughter.

In the opening scene pictured above, for example, Lady Bird (nee Christine) and her mom, Marion, both end up crying over “The Grapes of Wrath,” which they’ve just finished listening to in the car. Their moment of shared emotion quickly turns sour when they end up arguing over the radio, which leads to an argument over college, which leads to an argument about how Lady Bird lives her life.

And, just like that, the tone is set and I was hooked.

I heard my husband actually gasp during a couple of scenes in the movie, probably because he was experiencing some form of PTSD, especially when Lady Bird and Marion bicker while dress shopping until Lady Bird finds the perfect one and they both immediately start “ooh”-ing and “ah”-ing over it together as though nothing stressful had ever happened. That may have triggered a memory or two about his own beloved wife and daughter.

Yes, the mother-daughter relationship is fraught with emotion and hormones, laughter and tears — and, for the most part, love and good intentions.

Although we know she only wants the best for her, Marion often says hurtful things to Lady Bird that make us cringe and make Lady Bird act out. You know, the road to hell and all …

Like many teenage girls, Lady Bird is a rebel. She wants to move far away from her home town of Sacramento for a bigger life in New York. She changes her name, dyes her hair, makes some bad choices but, ultimately, she’s a good girl who is more like her mother than she cares to admit.

I don’t want to tell you much of the story because I want you to just see it and take it in yourself.

Saoirse Ronan — who was so brilliant in Brooklyn — is simply a wonder, and it is impossible to take your eyes off her when she’s onscreen. Look for Oscar nominations for her, Laurie Metcalf and Greta Gerwig — who, with this extraordinary coming of age story, has created her own equally extraordinary coming of age story as a writer/director.