Film Reviews

Birth

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Alison Elliot
• Details: US/ 100 mins/ (15PG).

A delicate psychological thriller that loses its way far too easily, Birth stars Nicole Kidman as Anna, a young widow who lost her husband some ten years previous. She's finally started to move on with her life, having accepted a proposal of marriage from Joseph (Huston). Out of the blue, however, a ten-year-old kid (Bright, utterly fantastic) turns up at her sprawling New York apartment and claims that he's Anna's dead husband, Sean. Although the affluent family, headed by the bullish Bacall, dismisses his story, Sean's doggedness begins to unnerve them.
While the premise of Birth doesn't stand up to all that much scrutiny, it's an intriguing one even if Glazer never seems sure what exactly he wants to do with it. More concerned with the look of the film and coaxing performances from his well-heeled cast, he neglects to do anything particularly meaningful with the screenplay, content to let ambiguity - which appears more like indecision - rule.
To make matters worse, there is a ridiculous twist in the film, but even before that, Birth's characters and their obtuse reactions and motivations have lost the viewer's sympathies. 'This doesn't make any sense,' says Anna towards the end of the film. It stopped doing that a long time before...

Review by Garreth Murphy