Trailer for Andrea Arnold's ‘Bird'

It turns out that Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” is unlike any film that she’s made before, almost playing like a fable, steeped in magical realism. Five months since its Cannes debut, a trailer has finally been released for the film.

To say this was a disappointment at Cannes would be an understatement. “Bird” is quite possibly Arnold’s worst film, which doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad one, just very underwhelming, and bewildering. It currently sits at 70 on Metacritic and 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The setting is familiar territory for Arnold; A working-class neighborhood is where 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams), nearing puberty, lives with her single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter (Jason Buda), in a Northen Kent squat. Bug is hinted at being a drug dealer, having just bought a toad that can excrete hallucinogenic slime as he cares, so gently, for it, throughout the film.

Bailey’s sisters live with their mother, Peyton (Jasmine Jobson), and her abusive partner. We quickly see Bug with another woman, announcing that he’s engaged to this new girlfriend, Kayleigh (Frankie Box). Bailey isn’t happy about the news and frowns back to her room. In a rebellious act, she cuts her hair short and starts hanging with the wrong people.

Once this set-up has been completed, Franz Rogowski’s character, who goes by Bird, appears ––introduced with a gust of wind, Arnold hints at this man possibly being a supernatural fowl. He barely speaks, has rather strange clothing, always a dress on, and Bailey takes a strange liking to him. Bird is searching for his family, whom he says he hasn’t seen in 30-some-odd years. They go knocking at doors, looking for answers, but always hit a dead end.

In similar fashion to her previous films, Arnold has cast a mix of non-professional and professional actors in “Bird.” She still maintains the kitchen-sink realism, great soundtrack, and handheld camera movements. However, what’s lacking here is a gripping story. You don’t always believe the implausible actions of its characters.

The key character here is Rogowski’s Bird, and Rogowski exudes mystery in the role — strange clothing, odd accent and other-worldly behavior — always found perching on rails. The more we see of him, the more intrigued we get by Arnold’s film, which does come off as a tad too on the nose in its thematic delivery. A clunky subplot involving Bailey’s brother, who impregnates his 14-year-old girlfriend and decides to run away with her to Scotland, is puzzling and inefficient.

Shot by Robbie Ryan, and solidly acted by everyone, especially Keoghan as the well-meaning deadbeat dad, the film somehow, and unlike Arnold’s previous films, delves into gushy sentimentality. There was a feeling, in Arnold’s best films (“Fish Tank” and “American Honey”) that she ingrained herself in the territory she was tackling, almost like a gonzo journalist. The Arnold magic isn’t as present here.