Bird

For Clint Eastwood to helm a biographical film on an influential bebop jazz musician is a step in a new direction for the gun-wielding Hollywood action man, to say the least. That the story of Charlie "Bird" Parker is told in nonlinear, and yes, even artistic fashion is even more surprising. Forest Whitaker and Diane Venom turn in excellent performances as the title character and his wife in this sumptuously photographed period piece that superbly evokes Kansas City in the 1930s (where Parker got his start) and New York in the 1940s (where he rose to fame). Much of the focus of the film is on Chan Parker (Venom),, whose allegiance in the face of Bird's drug problems, infidelity, fluctuating income, and the tragic death of their daughter was remarkable. Like many artists before him, Bird's life was a comet--a short life intensely lived--that, for Bird, was extinguished in 1955 at the age of 34. Although overlong, and occasionally melodramatic, Bird is still a remarkably unconventional achievement for Hollywood. Recommended.