Towards the end of last semester, I wrote a paper on the roles of maternal characters in various films. One of the main focuses of the essay was Lady Bird, the refreshing, heart-warming, and modern coming-of-age film written and directed by Greta Gerwig in 2017. Saoirse Ronan (who plays Lady Bird in Lady Bird), won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical or Comedy and the Lady Bird film won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Here’s an excerpt from the aforementioned essay:
Greta Gerwig’s 2017 film Lady Bird tells the story of a coming-of-age teenage girl from Sacramento who wishes to escape her monotonous lifestyle and attend a liberal arts college in New York. Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, who belongs to a low-income family of four, is notably different than the other people she interacts with, especially her mother. The film follows Lady Bird and her adventures through maturing, dating, applying to institutions of higher education, and personal family issues. Of these family issues, the most significant in the film are those of the relationship between her and her mother. Not only is this statement emphasized by the events throughout the film and the conclusion of the film, but the beginning as well: the film opens with Lady Bird and her mother laying in bed, facing each other, with Lady Bird’s arm bent in such a way that makes it seem as though she has a beak (you know, like a bird). The words and actions of Lady Bird’s mother tell almost as much of a story about Lady Bird as Lady Bird’s actions do.
While Lady Bird is an ambitious, free soul, she is constrained by the words and doings of her mother. One of the very first scenes of the film includes a conversation between Lady Bird and her mother Marion while they are in the car discussing Lady Bird’s desire to go to a school away from home. Marion interrupts Lady Bird and says, “How in the world did I raise such a snob? You couldn’t get into those schools anyway. You should just go to city college. You know, with your work ethic, just go to city college and then to jail and then back to city college and then may you’ll learn to pull yourself up and not expect everybody to do everything– ah!” Marion McPherson suddenly says “ah!” in reaction to Lady Bird opening the car door and letting herself fall out. These two characters have multiple heated discussions throughout the film, ending with Marion simply not speaking to Lady Bird because Lady Bird did not tell Marion that she had secretly applied to and eventually accepted an offer to a school in New York. The dynamic between these two characters can be best described through the comparison of these two lines of dialogue from different moments in the film: “Whatever we give you, it’s never enough, it’s never enough,” and “I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you could be.” Other characters say that Marion “has a big heart,” and that “she’s warm but she’s also kind of scary.” At one point, Lady Bird asks her father if her mother hates her and her father replies, “You both have such strong personalities,” emphasizing the dramatic relationship between the two characters. Also, Lady Bird’s father suffers from depression and is much more caring and tender than Lady Bird’s mother is, flipping the father/mother stereotype on its head (woo for challenging gender roles).
Many of those moments can be seen in just the trailer for the film if you want to check it out. Lady Bird’s story structure is by no means much different than the nature of other coming-of-age films, but its execution, style, timing, and content speak volumes to its uniqueness. Lady Bird and those involved are nominated for a total of five Oscars: Best Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actress, Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Although Lady Bird is one of my personal favorite films of 2017, it is matched against some tough competition in each of the categories and probably won’t get the attention it deserves.
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