William Hurt has long been one of my favourite actors, usually playing the same role of the introverted, misanthropic person who just needs to find a good woman to bring out his warm, caring side - Accidental Tourist and A Couch in New York shared that same structure, and both did the job exceedingly well.

Rare Birds uses the same basic premise, this time switching the action to a beautiful but virtually unpopulated part of Newfoundland, where William, known here as John, is running a restaurant, The Great Auk (the original "rare bird", of course). The restaurant is rapidly going broke - which happens when you open a restaurant in an area that's strictly for the birds.

His best friend Phonse (Andy Jones II) comes up with a plan to save the restaurant. Just invent a sighting of an extinct bird, a salt-water duck, and ornithologists the world over will flock to the area, and incidentally fill the restaurant. Problem solved.

There are a lot more plot levels in what's meant to be a whacky, crazy movie from the Local Hero school of film-making, but it's all very slight if not downright stupid. Lost parcels of high-grade cocaine, a home-made submarine, corrupt corporations and inept Royal Canadian Mounted Police... in the end it all amounts to very little indeed.

And then there's Phonse's niece, Alice, played by Molly Parker. She's in her late 20s, and is visiting Phonse while waiting to go to University to study architecture. And of course she discovers William Hurt, at the same time that he's plundering Phonce's stash of high-grade cocaine.

And she of course falls in love with this mumbling, middle-aged inarticulate oaf (sorry, inarticulate chef) with white crystals falling from his nostrils. It was at this stage that both my wife and daughter commented that the script may have been written by a man - that it did indeed seem to be some sort of male fantasy. And on reflection, I did admit that I myself have noticed that young women aren't really all that interested in married middle-aged men, such as William Hurt and myself.

This film was made for Canadian television. And, just like the Michael Caine/Phil Cornwell masterpiece Get Chisholm, it has managed to sidestep cinema release and go straight to video. And there is a reason for that... sad, sad, sad. It's poorly written and is acted by people who seem to be wishing desperately to be somewhere else. Rare Birds? More like terminally dead birds, I fear.

This is a crisp anamorphic transfer, with clear tones and excellent clarity.

While the American edition came out with two-channel stereo sound only, the Australian edition has a very clean and precise Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

An anamorphic trailer is the only extra, and it is illuminating in how it tries to suggest that this film is everything it is not, while trying to avoid mentioning everything it is.