Birth-2004
Director Jonathan Glazer
Starring Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright
Scott’s Review #1,124
Reviewed March 18, 2021
Grade: B+
Due to the difficult nature of the film’s storyline, Birth (2004) is a tough sell to most cinema lovers.
A grown woman embarking on any sort of romance with a ten-year-old boy will turn off viewers, though can you even imagine if the genders were reversed? I was fascinated by the premise and the endless possibilities of a conclusion.
I’m not quite sure what I expected to ultimately happen but I felt slightly underwhelmed by the ending.
All in all, it is a daring effort that I wish had more payoff.
The first hour or so is extremely provocative.
Nicole Kidman excels at making the unbelievable material as believable as she can and the film is directed very well by Jonathan Glazer who gives it a haunting and mysterious Stanley Kubrick vibe.
The director would come into name recognition following his 2013 masterpiece Under the Skin.
The film opens with a voiceover of an unknown man, a professor, lecturing about his disbelief in reincarnation. The audience then sees the man jogging through New York City’s Central Park where he collapses and dies.
It takes Anna (Kidman) ten years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, (the professor) but now she’s on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph (Danny Huston), and finally moving on. We suspect she may not be completely keen on marrying Joseph but most of their relationship is unclear. We know that she aches for Sean.
On the night of their lavish engagement party, a young boy named Sean (Cameron Bright) turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first, she ignores the child, thinking it’s a joke, but his knowledge of her former husband’s life is uncanny, leading her to slowly realize that he could be telling the truth.
Anna is conflicted to say the very least and Kidman effortlessly makes the audience believe that what is considered ridiculous might be true.
Is there a supernatural element here?
Her family members, led by her mother Eleanor (Lauren Bacall) are disbelieving and antagonistic towards the boy for disrupting Anna’s life.
An issue is that other than one supporting character, Clara (Anne Heche), who has a great opening sequence burying mysterious letters, the others have next to nothing to contribute to the story except to brood and get angry.
Bacall, in particular, is completely wasted in a role that could have been played by any other older actress.
Parallels to Rosemary’s Baby (1968) are hard not to make. Anna dons a similar pixie hair as Rosemary. They both reside in swanky old-style New York City high-rises that have a ghostly, haunting feeling. The ambiance is positive.
My favorite camera shot that Glazer includes is a lengthy one of Kidman’s Anna. In a close-up, the character’s reactions are on full display for what feels like several minutes. Kidman gets to show her tremendous range- tears, shock, realization.
I’ve noticed a similar shot in a handful of modern films and it’s an actor’s delight- a viewer’s too!
The finale, without giving much away, is interesting to a point. The big reveal involving Clara is intriguing until the viewer backtracks and tries to add up all the events. The fact is they don’t add up and I longed for something more concrete or believable.
There is not a good payoff.
Birth (2004) doesn’t always add up to satisfaction but it’s edgy, gloomy, and unpredictable and I enjoyed those facets enough to recommend it. This is not a mainstream film like Ghost (1990) with a similar theme- it’s much more cerebral and thought-provoking.
Kidman’s performance is the main draw here but it’s tough to find a film the actress is not great in.
