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Birth Details

2004 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 40
  • from 29,909 members

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 Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 18 Apr 2005
Production year: 2004
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (4) of Birth

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    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.

    • Radio Times
  • Powerful, stirring and thought provoking

    • GQ
  • Most helpful member's review of Birth

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  • 76 out of 92 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    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.

      • Stimpy from London
  • Most recent members' review of Birth

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  • 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    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.

      • LukenJamie from Hampshire
  • News and features

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    Where the Wild Things Are

    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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Rating breakdown

29,909 Member ratings
  • 100
443
  • 90
748
  • 80
1,447
  • 70
2,729
  • 60
4,298
  • 50
4,504
  • 40
5,230
  • 30
4,386
  • 20
4,096
  • 10
2,028

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    • 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 ...