First Born

FIRST BORN is NOT a tale of the supernatural. If you want to hear more, I must warn you that much of the rest of this review could be considered a spoiler.

When you look at the box and read the description, it sounds for all the world like the film will be an old-school creepy horror movie. Haunted house kinda thing. It most emphatically is NOT.

This movie is an exploration of Post-Partum depression and Post-partum psychosis. It is told pretty much from the mother's (victim's) point of view and this makes it seem like a thriller or horror movie...because her perceptions are so whacked out. (It makes me a little sad to see some of the other reviews here talking about how frustrating a character Elizabeth Shue plays...the woman is suffering from a mental illness folks!)

From that regard, I suppose it is an unusual, and perhaps to a limited degree illuminating, movie. It is also VERY slowly paced, poorly cast and mostly unsatisfying. It is an hour-long episode of a cable TV show spread out over 90 minutes.

Years ago, Elizabeth Shue was nominated for an Oscar for LEAVING LAS VEGAS. Her work in that movie and just a few others WAS pretty good. But for the most part, she really isn't a good actress. Also, the script lets her down, because we never get to see her as a normal, nice person. She is moody and kinda unlikeable right from the start...so we aren't terribly invested in her story.

The other performers in the film are mostly dreadful. The British actor playing her husband is bland and the "faux Eastern European" actress playing the nanny is over the top...almost from a movie from the '30s or '40s.

The movie shows its low budget roots by having many scenes with supporting characters who don't speak. It's cheaper to pay an extra with no lines than a bit player with one line...so when Shue's character is giving birth...no one in the delivery room utters a line. I suppose some would argue that this contributes to understanding her feelings of isolation...but I found it unreasonably distracting.

It was a mildly interesting film...but not what we were expecting. If you want a straight exploration of one woman's unsettling descent into madness...you might like it okay. For me, I just sort of endured it so I could see what happened at the end. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

First Born is not your average scary, horror/thriller movie. It breaks from most movies of its genre in this way. The movie is very psychological in nature. The viewer sees things the way that one would imagine the main character is experiencing them. Everything is played out as being very real and not figments of one's imagination. At times, you can even feel the mother's scaredness. Other reviews have mentioned that the mother suffered from postpartum depression; however, in my opinion, a more accurate diagnosis would be postpartum psychosis as it appeared that she was more delusional than depressed.
The storyline had some holes in it (as do many movies of its genre),and the average thriller movie viewer might find it boring. Shortcomings aside, if you want a movie that makes you think and left wondering long after the end credits, then this is the movie for you.

I rented this movie last nite. I won't go over all the details, because they've been beautifully commented in most of the other reviews. But, I ended up rewinding the last 5 minutes of the movie again, because the ending was unbelievably sad and realistic. It does its job to make the point clear, that mothers of newborns, really need to be watched and paid attention to. I think we all get too caught up with the stress of everyday life that we forget about the obvious signs of depression or worse. I think the most interesting part was that when she went into the baby's room at the last scene, she didn't even seem to "see" the baby. Her attention was sharply focused on the doll and the mistakes she made with it (leaving it on the lawn, in the pool, etc.). Unfortunately doll and baby had blended into each other. The awful mistakes she made with the baby (i.e., locked in the basement with baby upstairs helpless, leaving baby in carseat in car) were not separated anymore. Maybe in her mind, trying to dance again, was her mind's way of telling her to start over. Very sad, very depressing, but I guess it needed to be said. Elizabeth Shue proves again and again that she is a good actress. The actor who was her husband was not a believable match. There was nothing attractive about him. Not only his looks, but the very idea she'd be married to this kind of zero-personality snob, is a stretch. But.....it may be what the director wanted people to notice?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 23 reviews  2.7 out of 5 stars