| Paulie | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Roberts |
| Written by | Laurie Craig |
| Produced by | Mark Gordon Gary Levinsohn Allison Lyon Segan |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
| Edited by | Bruce Cannon |
| Music by | John Debney |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23 million |
| Box office | $26.9 million[1] |
Paulie is a 1998 Americanadventurecomedy-drama film directed by John Roberts and written by Laurie Craig. The film follows the adventurous story of the eponymous Paulie, a talkingparrot who is capable of communicating with humans. It starsJay Mohr as the voice of the title character, alongsideGena Rowlands,Tony Shalhoub,Cheech Marin, andBruce Davison.
It received mixed-to-positive reviews and was abox office disappointment, grossing $26.9 million domestically against a $23 million budget. However, in the years after its release,Paulie would find a larger audience on home media sales. The film markedBuddy Hackett's last feature film appearance before his death in 2003.
While working as a janitor at an American institute, Russianimmigrant Misha Vilyenkov encounters Paulie, a wisecracking and loudmouthedblue-crowned conure who can speak as clearly as a human. Subsequently, he doesn't speak a word when Misha brings Dr. Reingold, the head of the institute, and other scientists to witness him.
Frustrated with Paulie at first, Misha relents and opens up about his homesickness. Paulie warms up to Misha, and he tells him his story about his original owner, a little girl named Marie Alweather who stutters. The story transitions to a flashback when he was gifted to her in his infancy. As Marie works on speech therapy, he begins to speak. Her father, Warren, a soldier, returns home fromVietnam and decides that Paulie is not helping her, believing their bond is disillusioning Marie's reality due to her claims of his ability to talk; Paulie never spoke to her parents out of fear towards them, and also refused to learn how to fly due toacrophobia. After a near-death experience in which she falls off the roof in an attempt to teach Paulie to fly, Warren sends him away, devastating Marie.
Paulie is passed down to various owners and eventually ends up in apawn shop where he spends his time badmouthing the customers. One day, a shady customer named Benny shows interest in purchasing him, thinking he could profit from his speaking abilities, until widowed artist Ivy purchases him first with the intent of reforming his ill behavior after he insults her. She befriends Paulie and agrees to help him find Marie, who has moved toLos Angeles. They begin traveling using hermobile home, but when she becomes blind in the middle of their trip, Paulie decides to stay and take care of her. She eventually passes away, and Paulie, having finally learned to fly, continues his journey.
In East Los Angeles, Paulie joins a group of performingconures owned by migrant musician Ignacio, temporarily forgetting about Marie as he develops feelings for a female named Lupe. At one of his performances, Benny, having also moved to Los Angeles, recognizes him and attempts to purchase him from Ignacio. When Ignacio refuses, Benny makes a prank call to the police at one of his performances. As the police show up, Benny kidnaps Paulie amidst the chaos as Ignacio is arrested and presumably deported. Under Benny's influence, Paulie begins a life of crime. In a botched jewel theft, he flies down through the chimney of a house, where he gets caught by the grandson of its owner. Benny flees the scene, betraying and abandoning Paulie in the process.
Paulie is then brought to the institute, where Reingold, his employees and fellow scientists are stunned by his ability to speak to humans. They subject him to speech testing, and Reingold promises that he will be reunited with Marie once finished. Paulie overhears Reingold privately revealing that he and the institute have found Marie’s whereabouts, but concealed this information from him so that he would remain their property. Realizing he's been lied to all this time, a resentful Paulie humiliates Reingold in front of his scientific peers by acting like an ordinary parrot, disrespecting him and his assistants while refusing to cooperate with more tests. He then calls out Reingold's deception, and tries to make a break for it. As a result, his wings are clipped and he is eventually imprisoned in the basement when he starts pecking the researchers.
Moved by Paulie's story, Misha decides to release him and take him to Marie. They find Marie's contact information in Reingold's office, only to be caught by him. Misha stands up to Reingold for his cruelty to Paulie and gladly resigns. They narrowly escape the institute, just after releasing the other caged animals in the testing lab. The duo reach Marie's address, and find her as a beautiful young woman unrecognizable to Paulie. After singing a song her mother sang to her as a child, Paulie realizes that she is Marie and they happily reunite. He also realizes he can fly again as his feathers have regrown. Misha prepares to depart, but Paulie and Marie offer him to stay. Misha, evidently infatuated with Marie, decides to accept. The film ends with the trio happily entering her house.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(December 2014) |
Directed by John Roberts and written by Laurie Craig, the film's production budget was $23 million.[2]
Craig mentioned in an interview, "Paulie was an original story of mine. I was inspired by seeing a lone parrot in a cage and I wondered what it would be like if he could actually tell me his life story. Then I read about the amazing African Grey parrot named Alex who had a large vocabulary and was very bonded with his researcher."[3]
During the production of the film, 14 trained blue-crowned conures were used to portray the titular character, with other conure species such asnanday,jenday andcherry-headed conures appearing in supporting roles.[4]
Exterior shots of young Marie's house were filmed in Azusa, CA, on the corner of N. Soldano Ave. and Sixth St. Unfortunately, the house was demolished a couple of years after production, and the lot was split up for smaller homes. The production team mailed thank you letters to the residents along the street for the inconvenience.
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(December 2014) |
Box office receipts grossed $5,369,800 on the opening weekend, and $26,875,268 total.[5] It was released in 1,812 North American theaters.[2]
The film scored a 62% approval rating atRotten Tomatoes from 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[6] It was distributed in 24 countries and 10 different languages between 1998 and 1999.[citation needed]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Times gave the film two stars out of four and said, "Dogs and cats, horses and monkeys and even bears make charismatic movie stars, but "Paulie", I think, suggests that birds are more decorative than dramatic."[7] Tracey Moore ofCommon Sense Media gave the film a four stars out of five and said, "Talking bird on a coming-of-age journey with some peril."[8]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(March 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| ALMA Award | Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film - Cheech Marin | Nominated |
| ALMA Award | Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film - Trini Alvarado | Nominated |
| British Academy Children's Awards | Best Children's Feature Film | Won |
| Bronze Gryphon | Early Screens - John Roberts | Won |
| Young Artist Award | Best family feature - Comedy | Nominated |
| Young Artist Award | Best performance in a feature film - Young Actress aged ten or under - Hallie Kate Eisenberg | Nominated |
| Young Artist Award | Best performance by a young actress in a comedy film - Hallie Kate Eisenberg | Nominated |
