Birth (film)

Name	Birth
Caption	Theatrical poster
Director	Jonathan Glazer
Producer	Lizie GowerNick MorrisJean-Louis Piel
Writer	Jean-Claude CarrièreMilo AddicaJonathan Glazer
Starring	Nicole KidmanCameron BrightDanny HustonLauren Bacall
Music	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Harris Savides
Editing	Sam SneadeClaus Wehlisch
Distributor	New Line Cinema
Released
Runtime	96 minutes
Country
Language	English
Budget	US$20 million
Gross	US$23,925,492

Birth is a 2004 film directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Danny Huston and Cameron Bright.

The story is about a young widow from a prominent Manhattan-based family named Anna (played by Kidman) who slowly becomes convinced that her husband, Sean, who died ten years previously, has been reincarnated in the form of a 10-year-old boy also named Sean (Bright). At first Anna is skeptical, but Sean's intimate knowledge of their past makes her think twice.

Distributed by New Line Cinema, it earned 12th position on its opening weekend, garnering $1.7 million with bookings at 550 screens. The combined worldwide total box office was $23.9 million, with $5.1 million in the United States and $18.8 million abroad. Despite praise for Kidman's performance (which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination) and Glazer's direction, as well as Harris Savides's cinematography and Alexandre Desplat's score, the film generally received mixed reviews. However, writing in The Guardian in August 2010, film critic David Thomson included the film in his list of '10 lost works of genius'.

Plot

A narrator lectures to an unseen audience, mentioning that he disbelieves in reincarnation. We then see this man, Sean, running through Central Park, where he dies of a heart attack. Ten years later, the man's widow, Anna (Nicole Kidman) has accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Joseph (Danny Huston).

When Clifford (Peter Stormare), Sean's brother, arrives at Anna's engagement party, his wife Clara (Anne Heche) excuses herself, saying she forgot to wrap Anna's gift. Instead, she buys a replacement after hurriedly burying the gift while a young boy (Cameron Bright) secretly looks on.

At a party for Anna's mother (Lauren Bacall), the boy who followed Clara claims to be Anna's deceased husband, Sean, and warns her not to marry Joseph. At first Anna dismisses the boy's claim. When Anna receives a letter from him the next day warning her not to marry Joseph, she realizes the boy truly believes he is her reincarnated husband.

That night Anna and Joseph discuss the letter. Since the building watchman seemed to know the boy (and that the boy is also named Sean), Joseph calls to get more information. When Sean answers the phone, Joseph rushes downstairs to confront him. He takes him to Sean's father (Ted Levine), where the three of them order Sean to leave Anna alone. Sean refuses to recant his story, and a pained Anna sees the young Sean collapse in his father's arms. She has begun to believe the boy may be a manifestation of her dead husband.

Sean leaves a message on Anna's answering machine, which her mother overhears. That day at lunch, Anna's mother mentions that Sean wants to meet Anna in the park, and that she will know where. Anna hurries to Central Park and finds Sean waiting in the spot where Anna's husband died. He offers to submit to questioning.

Anna's brother-in-law Bob (Arliss Howard), a doctor, talks to Sean, recording his responses on tape. He answers frankly all the questions, even giving intimate details of Anna and Sean's sex life. Sean is brought to Anna's by his fretful mother (Cara Seymour), and he is able to identify parts of the apartment. Everyone except Anna remains reasonably doubtful. Anna's family becomes worried, particularly her sister Laura (Alison Elliott), who treats young Sean with contempt.

When Anna misses an appointment with her fiance to spend time with Sean, Joseph begins feeling worried not merely about the boy, but about Anna's odd behavior. Joseph's jealousy is made plain when he physically attacks Sean. When Sean runs out, Anna follows him and kisses him on the lips.

Anna seems convinced by the boy's story and asks Clara and Clifford to meet him. Clara encounters Sean at the door and asks him to visit her later. When he visits, he brings a backpack full of Anna's love letters to Sean. These were Clara's spiteful engagement gift which the boy secretly unearthed and read the night of the party. We learn that Clara was Sean's lover before his death, and that he gave the letters to her unopened as proof of his love. Clara was jealous that Sean would not leave Anna, but abandoned her plan to give Anna the letters. When Clara points out that if he were really a reincarnation of Sean he would have come to her first, Sean runs out in a state of confusion and guilt.

When Anna finds Sean, she suggests they run away and marry when he is of legal age. He tells Anna that since he loves her he must not be the reincarnated Sean.

Anna apologizes to Joseph, and they are married at the beach. Sean wrote a long letter apologizing to Anna, wondering why he had the delusion of being her husband. Anna wades into the sea in anguish after the ceremony. Joseph gradually pulls her back onto the sand and whispers reassuringly into her ear.

Cast

Nicole Kidman as Anna

Cameron Bright as Young Sean

Danny Huston as Joseph

Lauren Bacall as Eleanor

Alison Elliott as Laura

Arliss Howard as Bob

Michael Desautels as Sean

Anne Heche as Clara

Peter Stormare as Clifford

Ted Levine as Mr. Conte

Cara Seymour as Mrs. Conte

Production

Director Jonathan Glazer was interested in making a film about "the idea of eternal love" and a "mystery of the heart". While writing the script, he was not interested in making a ghost story or a "paranormal piece". He envisioned a fairy tale structure early on. The initial idea for the film came to him one day when he was in his kitchen: "There's this little kid and he tells a woman he's her dead husband - and he's ten years old.". Glazer went to Paris to discuss the idea with French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière at his producer's recommendation. Carrière ended up helping Glazer with the story and acted as a script consultant. She approached the director about doing the film. At first, he resisted because he felt that "her celebrity is so everywhere that I thought it could only hurt the delicate nature of this character". Kidman said that Glazer instructed her to do small, personal reactions. She found the character to be all-consuming so that she could not separate herself from the role. To research for the role, Kidman spoke to two friends who had lost their fathers and they talked about how it still affected them years after. and catcalls.

The film was not well-received among critics, garnering generally mixed to negative reviews. Birth has a 40% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 50 metascore at Metacritic. In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "the script is hooey. Birth is ridiculous, and oddly unforgettable". Michael O'Sullivan, in his review for the Washington Post, wrote, "What I'm not so fond of is the cop-out ultimately taken by the filmmakers, who can't seem to follow through on their promisingly metaphysical premise (let alone the theme of obsessive love), electing instead to eliminate all ambiguity". In his review for the New York Daily News, Jack Mathews called the film, "corny, plodding, implausible and - on occasion - seriously creepy". However, Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and compared it to Rosemary's Baby saying, "Birth is less sensational and more ominous, and also more intriguing because instead of going for quick thrills, it explores what might really happen if a 10-year-old turned up and said what Sean says". In his review for the New York Times, A.O. Scott praised Nicole Kidman's performance: "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." Birth was placed at 96 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s.

Controversy

The film generated controversy due to a scene wherein Kidman shares a bath with Bright, both apparently naked. Glazer insists that the scene is not erotic or exploitative. "I can imagine that, before people see it, they might think it was salacious. But I knew it was never going to be that." Further controversy occurred at the festival when a journalist described Kidman as a "screen legend", to which her co-star, Lauren Bacall replied, "She is a beginner". Kidman downplayed Bacall's remarks and said, "I certainly don't feel like a big star in Hollywood".

Complaints of the film's "cop-out" ending are questioned by Roger Ebert in his review, who notes: "There seem to be two possible explanations for what finally happens, but neither one is consistent with all of the facts." That the young Sean knows precisely where the adult Sean died, for example, cannot be explained by his having memorized the love letters.

References

External links

Why Is This Film Called Birth? Investigating Jonathan Glazer’s Mystery of the Heart Essay at 24LiesASecond

Interview with Jonathan Glazer by Dave Calhoun for Time Out (26 Oct 2004)

Interview with Jonathan Glazer (Birth) by Daniel Robert Epstein for Suicide Girls

Giving Birth to Controversy

Grief Encounter

Kidman: the best actress of her time?

Birth Control - Village Voice

Cinematographer Harris Savides on Trust, Birth, and Invisible Light

Category:2004 films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:2000s drama films Category:2000s thriller films Category:American drama films Category:American thriller films Category:American mystery films Category:New Line Cinema films Category:Psychological thriller films