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 | Birth Director: Jonathon Glazer MA 15+ Now screening  "What if my wife passed away and a bird lands on my window sill and tells me that it's Anna, then I guess I'd believe it," ponders a voiceover during the opening credits of 'Birth'; with those thoughts belonging to Sean as he's jogging through a snow covered Central Park. Moments later he collapses and dies and the film's stark premise jumps to ten years later.Anna (Nicole Kidman) is now planning to remarry, this time to Joseph (Danny Huston) and as the film cuts to their engagement party we see a young boy sitting in the foyer, and an unknown and seemingly inconsequential scene when a woman is having second thoughts concerning the gift she is giving the couple. Cut to Anna's mother's (a must see performance by screen legend Lauren Bacall) birthday celebration, when the boy unnervingly reappears and solemnly pleads with Anna not to marry Joseph, telling her that he's Sean - her dead husband. Understandably shaken by young Sean's revelation, Anna and her sister, Laura (Alison Elliot), and Joseph, soon become dismissive and make light of Sean's claim. That is until Sean steadfastly begins to seek out Anna and send little notes to her affirming his resolution. What I found makes this film so brilliantly compelling, and chillingly disturbing is not so much how much it reveals itself in the supernatural sense, but more so the psychological effect Sean has on poor Anna, and by proxy, Joseph. Kidman is superb in a role that belies her character's secular Manhattan lifestyle; having to not only deal with having to relive the grieving for her dead husband, but also the anger and scorn between her and her family, created by Sean's ominous presence. Cameron Bright (Sean) is amazingly reserved and impossibly mature for his onscreen age, although there's an occasional unguarded glimpse of childlike behaviour here and there, making any decision that Anna makes something more of a wrestle. It's the continual moral debate that, once it begins to raise questions, never lets them rest - any reasonable answers are laden with a measured mixture of ambivalence and hostility. 'Birth' is a remarkably simple, yet thoroughly intriguing movie that is in no way easy, in fact it's made even harder after some explanation is given. The telling of the story is thoughtful and slow, and unlike the very overrated "The Sixth Sense' (which also features an annoying ghostly kid and a 'surprise' ending), it's totally devoid of pretense, with much of its chilling effect hinging on the long fixed frames, very sparse dialogue and the disquieting score that combine perfectly in manipulating your senses.  | |
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