By: debbie lynn elias
It’s been ten years since Anna’s husband dropped dead on the pavement while jogging. And although Sean’s memory will always live on in her heart, she is ready to move on with her life. In fact, she’s found a new love with Joseph and is ready to settle down and remarry. At her posh Fifth Avenue engagement party, Anna and her guests get the shock of their lives when a young 10 year old boy suddenly and mysteriously appears at the party as dimmed lights are raised and candles extinguished. Somber and morose, with a deep voice that echos of malevolence, the child announces that he is Sean, Anna’s dead husband. More than taken aback, Anna and her family think this a cruel joke. Despite this, Anna is drawn to the boy, even mesmerized, as he regales events, instances, conversations, that only Sean would know. Even more convincing is a hidden passion in the boy that Anna has felt before – with her dead husband Sean.
Nicole Kidman turns in an emotionally charged and fulfilling performance with her portrayal of Anna. With this role, above all others, she allows you to see inside the character, making the audience one with Anna as she transitions and transforms with a mere look. Impassioned and sentient, Kidman gives inner vision to Anna, as the character unfolds and embraces the seemingly impossible concept of reincarnation resulting in a powerful expressiveness that defies description.
Recently seen earlier this year in “Godsend” a similarly chilling work dealing with cloning and the essence of reincarnation, Cameron Bright as young Sean is spellbinding. With a maturity of a man three times his age, Bright has an unnatural ease with the adult tones, dialogue and mannerisms of his character, all of which aid in giving voice to the dead husband and adding new dimensions to this already multi-tiered work. His chemistry with Kidman actually evokes a sense of tragic romanticism, not to mention a believability in the theories of reincarnation. I fully expect to see an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Oscar for Bright come January given this performance.
Lauren Bacall as Anna’s upper crust, prim and proper mother Eleanor, provides a much needed grounding and counter balance to the “surreal.” And as comes as no surprise, she is as always, impeccably perfect. Anne Heche also turns in a winning work with her portrayal of Clara, a woman with her own mysterious ties to Sean.
Written by the team of Milo Addica, Jean-Claude Carriere and director Jonathan Glazer, “Birth” borders on the lubricious and licentious with its not too subtle sexual undertones in the relationship between Anna and Sean, while constantly pushing the envelope on the reincarnative premise in an interestingly provocative manner. Solely due to Kidman’s meticulously calculated performance, does the relationship not go from chaste and inexplicable to mysterious to salacious smut. Perhaps the most impactful moment of the film arises from an eloquently, albeit chilling monologue, delivered by Kidman. And while her delivery is key, it is the words themselves that will linger long after the film’s end. A shortcoming in the script, however, is a true lack of development in the history of Anna and adult Sean and the depth of their love and her loss which results in a void as to an explanation for the intensity of the Anna and young Sean relationship.
Directed by Glazer, this is an imposingly ominous, yet impeccable, work. From patterned pacing to the lush contrast-filled cinematography of Harris Savides, “Birth” is a visually and emotionally impressive work. Adding a profoundness to the overall essence of the film is the piano-heavy score by Alexandre Desplat.
Sadly, the excellence of the film is dampened by its ending as Glazer fails to tie up the many loose threads that have been set loose throughout the first 75 minutes, giving rise to even more questions than answers as the final credits roll.
Anna: Nicole Kidman Young Sean: Cameron Bright Eleanor: Lauren Bacall
Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Written by Mile Addica, Jean-Claude Carriere and Jonathan Glazer. Rated R. (100 min)
