’Sexy Beast’ was a great gangster flick with superb performances, stylish direction and a powerful sense of atmosphere. I hence eagerly looked forward to Jonathan Glazer’s next film.When ’Birth’, his second film was released it got a mixed reaction abroad.
Here was a man who had re-invigorated the British Gangster genre and his suddenchoice to make this almost strange drama about re-incarnation disappointed some. Most of the criticism though, came because of the film’s central relationship between Nicole Kidman and the kid which, according to some borders on pedophilia, an extraordinarily sensitive topic in America.
One famous critic dismissed the whole film just on the basis of one scene where Kidman and the kid (who claims to be the re-birth of her dead husband) are together in a bathtub.One wishes that the critics in general had looked deeper. ‘Birth’ is a superior drama in all regards.
Its cinematography, those beautiful long takes like the one the film begins with and the one on Kidman in a theater are almost like watching a Kubrick film without his film’s characteristic coldness, and excellent performances make this worth a watch.I am pretty bad at detailing plots but I will try to do my best.
A woman (Nicole Kidman) becomes convinced that a ten year old boy (Cameron Bright) is the reincarnation of her dead husband. The film details Kidman’s struggle with her emotions as she tries not to believe the boy and hold on to her present. Rather than becoming a cheap exercise in cashing in on the ‘mysticism’ of re-birth and thrilling the audience the film fortunately stays grounded and intimate.
That is not to say it is not suspenseful, but this aspect never overwhelms the sensitivity of the screenplay. All performances are utterly convincing. Kidman and Cameron Bright especially shine. The supporting cast of veterans such as Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche, Peter Stormare and Danny Huston is very competent.
I hope the US critics had overlooked the ‘creepiness’ of the notion of an older womanand a very young boy being her husband. It’s their loss anyway because this is ultimately a sobering study of a woman’s inability to forget her past and our vulnerability to trust anything in the hope of finding our lost loved ones.