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Birth
2004
Birth is a dramatic mystery set in New York's Upper East Side. Into the life of a 35 year old woman, Anna, comes a 10 year old boy, David, who is in love with her and convinced he is the reincarnation of her dead husband. Drawn to remember her past, Anna begins to question the choices she's made, much to the concern and .. Read more
| Starring | Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Glazer |
| Genres | Drama |
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Birth
Birth is a dramatic mystery set in New York's Upper East Side. Into the life of a 35 year old woman, Anna, comes a 10 year old boy, David, who is in love with her and convinced he is the reincarnation of her dead husband. Drawn to remember her past, Anna begins to question the choices she's made, much to the concern and consternation of her fiancé and her family.
| Starring | Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Glazer |
| Studio | ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 36 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 18 Apr 2005 Production year: 2004 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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A ten-year-old boy claims to be the reincarnation of a woman's dead husband in Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer's utterly captivating New York-set fairy tale. Scripted by Glazer, Milo Addica and Jean-Claude Carriére (Luis Buñuel's preferred collaborator), this gripping film considers the overriding power of love and how the strength of belief can lead individuals into moral minefields. Nicole Kidman astonishes anew with a performance of haunting intensity as the about-to-be-remarried widow whose life is turned upside down by Cameron Bright's intrusive pre-pubescent, who we first see crashing a party at her apartment and demanding that she call off the wedding. This elegantly shot and sophisticated curiosity relies heavily on close-ups, uses minimal dialogue and is scored to perfection (by Alexandre Desplat). Intriguingly ambiguous, thanks to its unusual slant as a paranormal thriller that is anything but (even its delicate resolution is firmly rooted in the surprisingly mundane), this stark and elusive spellbinder is a truly unique experience.
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Powerful, stirring and thought provoking
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Most helpful member's review
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76 out of 92 people found this review helpful
The most underrated film of 2004
Sexy Beast marked the arrival of a major new director in Jonathan Glazer and while being its polar opposite, Birth is as good a film and it stayed with me for much longer than many films I saw last year.
Forget anything you heard of Birth resembling The Sixth Sense, this is not about ghosts or twists. If anything this is closer to Soderbergs remake of Solaris in themes and atmosphere. Both films are slow but hypnotic studies of grief, obsession and second chances. Bunuel's frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière worked on the script which may account to the films subversive nature, though accusations of child pornography, whipped up buy the British tabloid press, are utterly unfounded. Im not always a fan of Nicole Kidman, but she gives a touching performance here and Danny Huston as her long suffering fiance is utterly fantastic. Alexandre Desplat composed what I thought was the most beautiful score for a film last year.
I know people who didn't like the end, but I found it deeply moving and it is actually much more complex than it may seem at first. -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Our rating was 1
What a load of rubbish, you know those films that you only keep watching is cause your so sure that *something* must happen at some point or surely they wouldn't have gotten the film released? Well this is a prime example, we both found it slow, boring, and pointless really. The film was very drawn out and ever so needlessly quiet, a real disappoinment.
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News and features
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Spike Jonze: Mild Thing
- 08 Dec 2009
Over the course of more than two decades writing about films and interviewing filmmakers – hundreds and hundreds of them – Where the Wild Things director Spike Jonze stands out as one of the most difficult. We spoke for about half an hour, but mostly I spoke and he smiled, shrugged, or mumbled. It was as if he’d taken a vow of silence or something – or I was a cop and he was guilty as sin. Why? Because everything he wanted to communicate, he put into his movie. The rest Read more
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