Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
3 stars
Director: Cathy Yan
Stars: Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Ewan McGregor
Duration: 109 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

In just a few short years Margot Robbie has established herself as one of Hollywood’s most important players. The 29-year-old first came to the world’s attention as Naomi Belfort, opposite Leonardo di Caprio in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013 where she garnered very positive reviews.

Since then, she has wowed audiences with a repertoire of colourful and diverse roles including her brilliant pluri-award-nominated turn as controversial Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in 2017’s I, Tonya; her surprisingly touching take on the ill-fated actor Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, and the recent Bombshell, which charted the fall of Fox News head Roger Ailes. She now reprises her role as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad.

At the film’s opening, thanks to a rapid-fire narration by Harley – which, much like the character herself, threatens to go off the rails with her breakneck train of thought – we learn that she is trying to piece her life together after breaking up with Joker.

She has run up a list of enemies; myriad undesirable characters who bear a grudge against Harley – and they are all out to get her

But Harley has not merely lost a boyfriend. She has lost her protection. As we find out through a hilarious set of vignettes, she has run up a list of enemies ‒ a myriad undesirable characters who bear a grudge against Harley and are all out to get her.

She goes on the run but it’s not long before she tangles with top with crime lord Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), who similarly wants her dead – but not before he recruits her to track down Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a teen pickpocket who has stolen something worth millions from him.

Sionis, however, is not to be trusted, so Harley reluctantly teams up with three very unlikely allies – Huntress (Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Gotham City Police detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to bring him down.

Birds of Prey has plenty going for it – it is superbly stylish, from its animated opening summing up how Harley came to be single, her idea of closure (blowing up the chemical plant that meant so much to her and her ex) and the stark contrast between its colourful characters and the dark, seedy, urban backdrop overrun by crime, but the film is really an example of style over substance.

The narrative is all over the place, despite its relatively straightforward – if slightly predictable – plot, and its unmistakable theme of female empowerment is too often overshadowed by the stylishly choreographed highly-kinetic, no-holds-barred violence that peppers the story. Its strongest selling point, however, is its characters.

Harley straddles the line between good and evil. She’s funny but has a complex dark side. She is incredibly strong and independent but also openly vulnerable. And, mostly, she’s a girl that wants to have fun, as epitomised by her fun and vibrant sense of dress and devil-may-care attitude as she makes one crazy move after another.

One of Robbie’s strengths is her ability to fully immerse herself in any role and Harley is a character Robbie clearly relishes. It is a bravura performance – a wild and wacky one which Robbie tackles with infectious enthusiasm, and she effortlessly carries the film.

If they get much less screen time than she does, her female co-stars also make an impact.

Winstead’s Huntress is a woman who has grown up thirsting to avenge her parents who were killed in front of her eyes; Smollett-Bell is a lounge singer with a killer voice and Perez’s Montoya is a detective fighting good old-fashioned sexism in her workplace. Their combined world-weary attitude is buoyed by the presence of the snarky Cain. It’s a great ensemble and the film really revs up when they finally get together for the final showdown versus the movie’s villains.

And this is the film’s weakest link. The line-up of black-clothed, tattooed, sneering heavies are led by Ewan MacGregor’s crime lord Sionis. Despite his posturing, he does not quite cut it as a villain (despite his penchant for peeling off the faces of his victims). Not over-the-top enough, it feels like he is simply going through the motions and he never seems to be a match for his antagonists, robbing the story of any tension.