The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Timothy Olyphant, Kim Quinn, Skyler Gisondo, Loretta Devine, Ravi Kapoor, Daveed Diggs, Rosalind Chao, Laura Harrier, and Kevin Kline.

As if Lilly's troubles weren't bad enough, a starling nesting in a tree in her backyard begins to harass and attack her, and she becomes obsessed with stopping it.

[4] In August 2019, Kevin Kline, Timothy Olyphant, Daveed Diggs, Skyler Gisondo, Loretta Devine, Laura Harrier, Rosalind Chao, and Kimberly Quinn joined the cast.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Burying its talented cast and worthy themes under mounds of heavy-handed melodrama, The Starling is a turkey.

"[13] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent also gave the film a score of 1/5 stars, describing it as "an utterly bizarre, tonal misfire that fumbles through several ideas before implying that it's perfectly OK to berate the suicidal for being so suicidal", and wrote: "Not only are the jokes in Matt Harris's script badly timed, but they're also largely incomprehensible – there's an extended bit about a leg-humping dog and several caricatures of the mentally ill that all feel like half-remembered approximations of Oscar bait.

"[14] Johanna Schneller of The Globe and Mail gave the film a score of 1.5/4 stars, writing: "Director Theodore Melfi, who did a fine job with Hidden Figures, focuses his energies here on leaden metaphors, especially a persistent CGI starling, which represents … no one cares what.

"[16] Kevin Maher of The Times was more positive in his review of the film, giving it a score of 4/5 stars and writing: "The enjoyment of watching this modest melodrama is implicitly connected to a giddy acknowledgement that there remains a bold class of film-maker willing to blow $20 million on a low-key tale of grief for grown-ups.