Birth Movie Review:


With so much controversy, an echo of a horror legend and an Oscar winning actress, why is “Birth” so boring?

“Birth” stars Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman as Anna, a wealthy socialite who loses her husband quite suddenly on tepid fall day. Anna is a wreck and through the patience of suitor Joseph (Danny Huston), she is trying to find a way to move on and if Joseph plays his cards right, marry him.

Ten years after the death of Anna’s husband, Anna’s family has gathered together to celebrate Anna’s mother Eleanor’s (Lauren Bacall) birthday. When the candles are blown out and the family laughs with glee, a voice is heard. It is asking to speak to Anna and it is coming from a strange 10 year old boy named Sean (Cameron Bright). The family is shocked that a stranger has walked into their private function.

Anna ushers the boy out of the room and he confesses to Anna that he is in fact the reincarnation of her dead husband who also happened to be named Sean. Can it be? How much does Anna want to believe this child? And is this the kind of revelation that could destroy a person’s life? Is the boy real or a fraud?

“Birth” has a solid opening but since the concept is so totally out there it is a hard one to grasp, let alone accept.

The film is so quiet, withdrawn and it almost echoes the feelings of Kidman’s Anna. The film itself almost feels like it is mourning as it searches for meaning in a slew of dullness.

Kidman looks great and delivers a strong performance as Anna but the film never allows us to see into Anna enough to really see what she sees in the boy. I also really enjoyed the solid performance from young Cameron Bright who also played the spooky kid in last year’s “Godsend”.

I really didn’t like the performance from Kidman’s love interest, played by Danny Huston. His character to me came off as a vulture circling the carcass of Kidman’s grieving widow. He oozed slime and the love scenes with Kidman made me want to scream for a motion sickness bag.

I have often said that a lot can be told from the quiet moments in a film. There are a lot of quiet moments in “Birth” and what is strange is that they have nothing to say.

So what is all the controversy about?

The controversial scene involving a naked Kidman having a bath with a naked child comes off as nothing that shocking. The film could have probably made sense with or without the scene it seems overly pushed and the scene really isn’t even a good one.

There is a lot of ways that I could see that this film is trying to be something it is entirely not. There are some echoes of Roman Polanski but there was a lot of meaning and layers in his use of silence. All you can hear in the silence of “Birth” is an audience member whispering, “Can we go yet?”

How can a film like this be so dull? I don’t know. It just is.

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

Ten years after the death of her husband, Anna (Kidman) has finally started to become open to the possibility of getting married again. After years of asking Joseph (Huston), thinks he has helped Anna get past her grief and will finally get her down the aisle. As they announce their engagement and start planning their May wedding, a ten year-old boy turns up at the party and tells Anna that he is her dead husband Shawn (Bright) and that she should not marry Joseph.

The intriguing plot device, reincarnation is the driving force behind ‘Birth’ but why is a fascinating subject approached in such a mind numbly boring way?

From the director of the critically acclaimed ‘Sexy Beast’, you might be expecting a lot more from Jonathan Glazer’s second feature but you will be extremely disappointed. While the premise is quite interesting, the execution is simply awful. A snail would be thinking the pacing of the movie is slow, as the extremely slight story is dragged out for 100 minutes.

The revelation of Shaun’s appearance and the effect it has on Anna and the people around should have opened up a cornucopia of possible plot lines but all the film does is border on the ridiculous. While it is easy to agree that it would stare up past feelings and memories, some of Anna’s reactions are simply preposterous and bordering on paedophilia. This is never graphic or exploitive but the suggestion is there and this instils a nasty tinge to the whole film.

The film’s only saving grace is the performances of the cast. Cameron Bright is a talented child actor who deserved a better script than this. He delivers Shaun’s lines with a believable conviction that makes the character more authentic, even as the plot collapses around him. Anne Heche and Peter Stormare make good cameo appearances but their characters are very underdeveloped and underused. Danny Huston probably gives the best performance as Joseph, the only one who seriously questions Shaun’s revelation and reacts accordingly with it. The character is let down slightly in the finale, as he doesn’t really question any of Anna’s actions or mental state. Lauren Becall brings some class to the proceeding but doesn’t have enough to do, making the role a real waste of her talents.

The movie is all about the performance of Nicole Kidman and you can tell that this was put together in order for her to get award recognition. Her performance is fine and you have to applaud the fact that she does choose more challenging and interesting sounding productions but this won’t do anything to further her career.

‘Birth’ is one of the dullest and most drawn out cinematic experiences you could ever choose to endure. You know that you are in for something truly excruciating when you have to sit and watch Nicole Kidman stare out of the screen for well over four minutes, without actually doing anything. While the performances save this from been a total disaster, the film lack of a real conclusion and any explanation as to why the Shaun thinks he is Anne’s long dead husband make the film less credible and more farcical than it should have ever been.

Star Rating = *

Jamie Kelwick

 

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