Paulie is a 1998 American adventure comedy-drama film directed by John Roberts and written by Laurie Craig. The film is about a wisecracking and disobedient talking parrot named Paulie, who has been locked in a cage in a basement. He shares his adventurous story to the janitor. It stars Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Gena Rowlands and Jay Mohr, the latter who performs both the voice of the title character and the on-screen supporting role of Benny, a character who has a lot of dialogue with him.
It received mixed to positive reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing $26.9 million domestically against a $23 million budget. However, in the years after its release, Paulie would find a larger audience on home media sales. The film marked Buddy Hackett's last feature film appearance before his death in 2003.
Plot
While working as a janitor at an American institute, Russian immigrant Misha Belenkoff encounters Paulie, a Blue-crowned conure who can speak as clearly as a human. Subsequently, he doesn't speak a word when Misha brings Dr. Reingold, the head of the institute, and other scientists to witness him.
Frustrated with Paulie at first, Misha relents and opens up about his homesickness. Paulie warms up to Misha, and he tells him his story about his original owner, a little girl named Marie who stutters. The story transitions to a flashback when he was gifted to her in his infancy. As Marie works on speech therapy, he begins to speak. Paulie also refused to learn how to fly due to acrophobia. Marie's father, Warren, a soldier, returns home from Vietnam and decides that Paulie is not helping her, believing their bond is disillusioning Marie’s reality due to her claims of his ability to talk; Paulie never spoke to her parents out of fear towards them. After a dramatic event in which she falls off the roof in an attempt to teach Paulie to fly, Warren sends him away, devastating Marie.
Paulie is passed down to various owners, and eventually ends up in a pawn shop where he spends his time insulting the customers. One day, a shady customer named Benny shows interest in purchasing him, thinking he could profit from his speaking abilities. However, a widowed artist named Ivy purchases him first with the intent of reforming his ill-behavior after he insults her. She befriends him and agrees to help him find Marie, who has moved to Los Angeles. They begin traveling using her mobile home, but when she loses her sight in the middle of their trip, Paulie decides to stay and take care of her. She eventually passes away, and Paulie, having finally learned to fly, continues his journey.
In East Los Angeles, Paulie joins a group of performing conures owned by migrant musician Ignacio, temporarily forgetting about Marie as he develops feelings for a female conure named Lupe. At one of his performances, Benny, having also moved to Los Angeles, recognizes him and attempts to purchase him from Ignacio. When Ignacio refuses, Benny makes a phony police call at one of his performances. As the police show up, Benny kidnaps Paulie amidst the chaos. Under Benny's influence, Paulie begins a life of crime. In a botched jewel theft, he flies down through the chimney of a house, where he gets caught by the home’s owner. Benny flees the scene, abandoning Paulie.
Paulie is brought to the institute, where Dr. Reingold, the head of the institute, his employees and fellow scientists are stunned by his ability to speak to humans. They subject him to speech testing, and Reingold promises that he will be reunited with Marie once finished. However, Paulie overhears Reingold privately revealing that, though Marie has been found, the institute has instead decided to keep him as their property. Resentful, Paulie humiliates Reingold in front of his scientific peers by acting like an ordinary parrot, insulting him and his assistants while refusing to cooperate with more tests. He then calls out Reingold's deception, and tries to make a break for it. As a result, his wings are clipped, and eventually imprisoned in the basement when he starts pecking the researchers.