Barnes & Noble

Easily among 2004’s most provocative films, this emotionally charged melodrama initially sparked controversy for a daring scene in which leading lady Nicole Kidman climbed into a bathtub with an ostensibly naked ten-year-old boy. It’s a shame that the sequence attained so much notoriety, because aside from the fact that it’s tastefully done and entirely non-exploitive, it precisely speaks to the conundrum faced by Kidman’s character. She plays Anna, a widow of ten years finally about to move on with her life by marrying Joseph (Danny Huston), a devoted if rather stolid man of means. While a birthday party is underway at the Manhattan apartment of Anna’s mother (Lauren Bacall), a young boy named Sean shows up uninvited and claims to be the reincarnation of the widow’s long-dead husband. This is patently absurd, but when the lad reveals knowledge that only her former spouse could know, Anna gradually begins to believe. Director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) puts over this wildly improbable yarn by downplaying its most sensational elements. The widow’s family and friends don’t throw up their hands and gasp in amazement at first sight of the boy; they react as one might expect sophisticated urbanites to react, displaying a mixture of skepticism, tolerance, and, finally, impatience. Kidman conveys her character’s inner turmoil with remarkable expressiveness, especially in a wordless three-minute close-up during which the viewer can practically read the thoughts whirling through her head. She gives a remarkable performance, as does young {|Cameron Bright|} as Sean. Some might find the subject matter unsettling, and no doubt that’s just the reaction for which Glazer and the screenwriters hoped -- and if not for the first-rate staging and acting, the film easily would sink under the weight of its improbability. Their achievement, therefore, is quite impressive. Birth may or may not be a great film, but it’s certainly an unforgettable one. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, Birth takes place in New York's Upper East Side, where Anna (Nicole Kidman), a 35-year-old widow, resides. Just as Anna has shaken off what she thought were the final remnants of her old life -- she has even found love with a new man, Joseph (Danny Huston), whom she plans on marrying -- Sean (Cameron Bright), a ten-year-old boy, comes into her life insisting that he is the reincarnation of her late husband. Though she initially brushes off the boy's claims as the result of a crush on her, his grave demeanor and uncanny knowledge of her life leads Anna through a self-reevaluation that not only threatens her marital plans with Joseph (Huston), but also strains her relationship with her mother, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall). ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

New York Times

Without Ms. Kidman's brilliantly nuanced performance, Birth might feel arch, chilly and a little sadistic, but she gives herself so completely to the role that the film becomes both spellbinding and heartbreaking, a delicate chamber piece with the large, troubled heart of an opera. A.O. Scott

Chicago Sun-Times

Because it is about adults who act like adults, who are skeptical and wary, it's all the creepier, especially since Cameron Bright is so effective as the uninflected and non-cute Sean. Like M. Night Shyamalan's best work, "Birth" works less with action than with implication. Roger Ebert

Product Details

• UPC: 794043783821
• Source: NEW LINE HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:40:00
• Sales Rank: 5,204

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