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February 5, 2008
Death & "Birth"
Stratford Library programming chief Tom Holehan is one of my local culture heroes so I was very happy when he called me several months back to suggest a film for his annual “Great Movies You Missed” series.
It didn’t take long for me to come up with “Birth,” the 2004 Jonathan Glazer drama about reincarnation that opened to some very strong reviews (some terrible ones, too), but did not deliver the “Sixth Sense”-style supernatural thriller that early multiplex audiences expected. The box-office returns were so bad that the film was gone before it had time to find an appreciative audience.
There are tragic elements in “Birth,” but no horror or violence, so many of the people who saw the picture in its opening weekend dismissed it as boring or wildly improbable.
The commercial problem with this quite remarkable film is that it treats a supernatural experience with deadly seriousness — the upper class New York woman Anna played by Nicole Kidman has to confront the idea that the soul of her late husband has returned a decade after his death in the body of a 10-year-old boy, Sean (Cameron Bright).
Anna is still grieving but has agreed to marry Joseph (Danny Huston), who has been after her for years.
Jonathan Glazer wrote the original screenplay with Milo Addica and Jean-Claude Carriere (the latter writer worked on the 1972 Luis Bunuel classic, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”).
“Birth” combines a provocative premise with superb craftsmanship — the movie’s wintry Manhattan looks stunning as shot by Harris Savides and the music by Alexandre Desplat subtly heightens the emotion in many scenes.
What really carries the movie, however, is the brilliant and daring performance by Nicole Kidman who makes us believe Anna is in the middle of a hellish dilemma — the man she adored and lost has come back in the form of a 10-year-old boy.
If you go on the IMDB site, there are absurd claims that “Birth” becomes a form of “kiddie porn” in the scenes depicting Anna’s growing realization that her husband has returned as a pre-teen.
The contact we see between Anna and Sean is unsettling but not due to any sexual subtext — we are unnerved because Kidman makes us believe what her character believes and we can see that there is no rational way out of the situation.
The wintry look and the extended close-ups of Kidman are reminiscent of the work of Ingmar Bergman who thought the human face was just about the most interesting thing you can look at in a movie and who therefore gave us up-close-and-very-personal views of Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson and all of those other great Swedish actresses he worked with.
In this age of lightning-fast cutting, and movies that use actors as expensive props, it is such a pleasure to see Kidman have the chance to use the camera as a tool and to have so many close-up oppportunities. There is an incredible sequence early on in which Anna and Joseph arrive at the opera late and the camera moves in for a tight shot of Kidman’s face that is held for a few minutes so that we can watch Anna’s dawning realization that her husband might be back in a new form.
If you haven’t seen “Birth,” join me at the Stratford Library, 2203 Main St., Wednesday night at 7 p.m. for this free screening.
Posted by Joe on February 5, 2008 3:49 PM
