Birth

This is a very strange movie.

The plot is this: A young woman's husband dies. Ten years later, she's finally about to move on with her life and remarry, when suddenly a 10-year-old boy appears, insisting that he's her dead husband, reincarnated. At first, she and her family and her fiance all try to laugh it off, but this boy knows things about her that no one else could know and he's, well, he's strange. He doesn't act like a 10-year-old boy. And he wants his wife back.

So, first of all, you have this kind of uncomfortable plot with Nicole Kidman and a 10-year-old boy contemplating sex and stuff. Beyond that, the movie is kind of artsy. There are long, slow shots and a lot of the film is subtle. It's not at all predictable or formulaic, and I think that's made some audiences uncomfortable. Hell, I think the whole movie has made audiences uncomfortable. It's an uncomfortable movie.

It's also a very interesting one.

Watching "Birth," I was reminded of some of Stanley Kubrick's later movies. The acting is exceptional and the movie takes lots of chances. It never takes the easy route. So, for all of those reasons, I really found it interesting and worthwhile. There were a lot of great "moments" that have stayed with me.

But if you're a person who tends to prefer mainstream Hollywood movies, you are going to HATE this movie. Truly.

This film is definitely different. Unlike many of the films made today, it doesn't think the viewer is stupid and everything needs to be explained down to every little last detail. By that alone, I find this film to be exceptional experience.

The premise, I have to admit, is quite extreme. A woman's life is turned upside down when a young boy shows up at her door, literally, and claims to be her first dead husband. She is only too eager to believe it is true.

However, I didn't find the story to be this films strength, but the emotion it was able to communicate through visuals and music. This film is shot quite beautifully. Rich colors, elegant set designs, dramatic lighting, grainy quality that evoke the memories of old film footages, they are all wonderful just to stare at. The music is also fantastic, doing a wonderful job complimenting the story and the scenery and not overpowering them, yet letting its presence be known.

What the visuals and the music achieve is evocation of feelings. Kind of feelings when one is watching an old 8mm footage. Feelings of memories. Sweetness, love, longing, bitterness, regret, hope, and such feelings that people dearly hold on to. I find this to be the strength of this movie and its approach totally refreshing. It doesn't explain or show or tell. It lets the viewer experience, through vision and sound.

Another factor that greatly contributes to this film's effectiveness is Nicole Kidman. Although I seldom find her acting to be of much notice, she was quite powerful in this film, allowing her expressions and gestures to communicate. One good example is the concert hall scene, just moments after she witnesses the boy, who claims to be her dead husband, collapse in shock. The camera remains focused on her, while the music plays in the background. She is shaken. Really shaken up. The boy has gotten to her. She might be starting to believe.

I have read some review that describe this scene as completely ludicrous, because camera remains on Nicole Kidman for so long and nothing happens. I disagree. Those who felt this scene ineffective neglected to appreciate her nervous expression, almost like that of a woman who got caught daydreaming being with another man, and the music, sound of brewing turmoil and passion.

If you are willing to engage the film, not wait to be engaged, then I think you will find this film to be quite different and memorable.

It takes a lot of guts to make a "thinking movie," titillating the mind rather than bloodlust or hormones. And Jonathan Glazer takes a risk with "Birth," a bizarrely beautiful film about reincarnation and spiritual ties -- a risky maneuver, but one that pays off. The result is beautiful and strangely solemn.

A jogger named Sean dies in the park -- and a baby is born. Ten years later, the jogger's widow Anna (Nicole Kidman) is reluctantly celebrating her engagement to yuppie fiancee Joseph (Danny Huston). Suddenly a ten-year-old boy named Sean appears (Cameron Bright) and announces that he is Anna's husband, reincarnated into a boy's body.

At first, Joseph tells the kid he's wrong, and Anna brushes the kid off as a nasty prankster. But Sean knows intimate details about her marriage, and has a strange passion behind his claims. She begins to believe that he is telling the truth -- that he is her Sean, reborn. She reexamines her life and her future, as old wounds reopen and questions are raised.

A lot of fuss has been made over "Birth's" nude bath scene. Don't worry -- it's not sexual or prurient, but strange and almost surreal. It takes guts to include such a scene, even in a movie that is more about the spiritual than the physical. In a nutshell, it's a movie with heart (even if a logical brain is a little lacking)

And that scene aside, the movie is richly ambient, darkly beautiful, and raises an array of troubling questions. Is Sean really a reincarnation, or is he simply a young boy who worships a thirtysomething woman? Does Anna simply want to believe he is? And is spiritual love enough to conquer all? These questions, by the way, are left hanging in the air -- to do otherwise would seem almost silly.

The movie moves at a very, very slow pace -- it takes patience to fully absorb it. But the atmosphere is strangely dreamlike, slow and sensuous and almost outside real time. The outdoors is snowed over, and the interiors are beautiful and quiet. The final quarter is thought-provoking and open to interpretation, but does suffer from a rather unsatisfying feel.

Nicole Kidman does a magnificent job in this film. She takes the character of Anna and fills her with overwhelming emotion. In one powerful scene, she attends an opera with Joseph, and the camera lingers on her face and eyes; Kidman communicates silently everything Anna feels. Cameron Bright does a somewhat more spotty job -- with Kidman, he successfully comes across as a grave man-in-a-boy's-body. With anyone else, he just seems sullen. And Lauren Bacall gives a solid, sometimes funny performance as Anna's mom.

While it never entirely addresses its own issues, "Birth" is a magnificent, atmospheric film, with a spiritual twist. Ignore the controversy -- see "Birth" on its own considerable merits.

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