THE BIG YEAR (Rated PG)

Color me skeptical about a movie focused on the obsession of an ornithology hobby involving competitive bird-watching.

Oops, according to “The Big Year,” the practice of watching various avian species is called “birding” and the practitioners are “birders.”

The premise of “The Big Year” is that three disparate men, each facing unique personal and professional challenges, try to do outdo each other in the ultimate North American birding competition.

Some would say, if they are not members of the Audubon Society, that birding is a peculiar, even eccentric hobby, and even more so when it is competitive.

Yet, the oddity of frantically searching for elusive birds in far-flung locales, often remote and almost inaccessible, adds quirky humor to the practice.

“The Big Year” focuses on three individuals, each with his own eccentricities, in a quest during the length of a calendar year to top the record of 732 bird-sightings.

The ability to drop everything on a moment’s notice to fly to Louisiana or Alaska to follow up on the finding of a rare species would seem to require great financial means.

This would explain corporate titan Stu Preissler’s (Steve Martin) ability to chase rumors of the latest find on an Aleutian island.

The current birding champion is contractor Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson), so obsessed with keeping his record that he neglects his beautiful wife (Rosamund Pike), even while she is undergoing fertility tests.

The last member of the competitive trio is the one with little visible financial means, a divorced computer programmer stuck in a dead-end job.

Jack Black brings his traditional slacker/goofball persona to the role of 36-year-old Brad Harris, who will max out his credits cards while depending on help from his supportive mom (Dianne Wiest).

Meanwhile, Brad’s cantankerous father (Brian Dennehy), expressing the type of skepticism that could only come from paternal concern about a son’s future, is dubious about the whole exercise.

On the other hand, Stu’s wife (JoBeth Williams) understands his passion, but his executive assistants (Kevin Pollak and Joel McHale) are apoplectic that the boss jeopardizes merger deals by his peripatetic adventures.

Several dynamics are in play during the travels to scenic venues throughout North America. The devious Kenny, not averse to playing manipulative games, is the competitor worthy of contempt.

In a quest to overtake Kenny’s record, Stu and Brad strike up an unlikely friendship and form a cautious bond to locate as many feathered friends as possible.

Anjelica Huston has some delightful scenes as a sort of Tugboat Annie, taking the birders on an ocean cruise. Her utter contempt for Kenny is one of the film’s funniest moments.

“The Big Year” is an amiable comedy that is graciously amusing, focused more on gentle situational humor than the big laughs generated by raunchier films. After all, the PG rating is appropriate for this genial entertainment.

While the birding mania may be a foreign concept to the overwhelming majority of filmgoers, the winning trio of Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black should appeal to the mainstream.

Each actor brings elements of his well-established comic persona to the big screen, but in a muted fashion that is entirely fitting with the oddball nature of “The Big Year.”

The film’s evident charms also extend to the beauty of a first-rate travelogue of scenic habitats and the stunning photography of lovely wild birds.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

British TV crime series are often better than the American counterparts. Case in point, “Prime Suspect” on the Britain’s ITV network is better than the show of the same title on NBC’s fall schedule.

That is neither here nor there when it comes to “Without Motive,” and yet this British series is a dark mystery in the same vein of the British “Prime Suspect.”

You can judge for yourself with the DVD release of “Without Motive,” which aired on ITV a decade ago and now is available for the first time in the U.S.

Detective Constable Jack Mowbray (Ross Kemp) and his team spend Series 1 in search of a serial killer, who brutally murdered a young woman in Bristol.

The “Without Motive” DVD also contains Series 2, in which Mowbray, along with an investigating team rife with petty jealousies and full-blown rivalries, searches for a copycat criminal.

This British series is a gripping drama, one containing graphic violence and strong language. It would never run on our network television.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.