'Penguin Bloom' Trailer: Naomi Watts Bonds With A Bird In Inspirational Netflix Drama

Naomi Watts has had some furry co-stars before, but never one as feathered as this. The Oscar-nominated actress stars in another sun-dappled inspirational true-life story in Penguin Bloom, a movie that is neither about penguins or flowers. Instead, it stars Watts as a paraplegic mother who copes with her new paralysis by befriending a bird. Watch the Penguin Bloom trailer below.

Glendyn Ivin (Last Ride) directs Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln (emerging from his post-Walking Dead isolation) in Penguin Bloom, an inspirational drama that is sure to earn Watts some awards buzz in the vein of her past sun-dappled true life films like The Impossible.  Watts stars as Sam Bloom, a dedicated wife and mother of two, whose idyllic life on the Australian shores is shattered when a freak accident renders her wheelchair-bound. But she finds a surprising comfort in a wounded Magpie chick that her children take in, forming a bond with the bird that sets her on her own path to recovery.

There's not much to say about the trailer for Penguin Bloom: it's exactly what it says on the tin, a real-life inspirational drama that essentially shows the entire story in the trailer. But Watts gives a solid performance from what I can see here, and it's nice to see Lincoln in non-zombie projects.

Here is the synopsis for Penguin Bloom:

In 2013, Samantha Bloom (two-time Academy Award nominee NAOMI WATTS), her husband Cameron ( The Walking Dead's ANDREW LINCOLN) and their three sons left their home in Australia for a holiday in Thailand. While enjoying a view, Sam fell off of a rooftop due to what was later determined to be a rotted railing...breaking her vertebrae in two places. Paralyzed from the chest down, Sam — a lifelong outdoorswoman, surfer, and traveler — was unrecognizable to herself, and spent long months in a depression that made her question who she could be in the world and in her own family.

A year later, her children brought home a wounded baby magpie they found. Warily eyeing the black-and-white bird the kids affectionately named "Penguin," Sam bonded with the household's new member, beginning a process of emotional healing that surprised her husband and sons, her mother (Academy Award nominee JACKI WEAVER), and herself. PENGUIN BLOOM tells the amazing true story of renewal that occurred when a woman whose life seemed shattered found hope and purpose in her family's love — and in a bird on its own journey of recovery.

Penguin Bloom hits Netflix on January 27, 2021.