Review of Birth (2004) by Zineb Z — 23 Mar 2011

For his second feature, following 2002's Sexy Beast, writer-director Jonathan Glazer delivers a haunting supernatural thriller that doesn't quite clarify itself, but is no less provocative. It's mesmerizing. It's not kiddie porn though, despite some of the unwarranted criticism it garnered upon its release in 2004 for a scene in which Anna (Nicole Kidman), a lonely widow for ten years ready to remarry, is having her bath when Sean (creepy little Cameron Bright),a ten-year-old boy she has recently met, walks in, emoves his clothes and enters the tub. 'What are you doing?' she asks. 'I want to look at my wife,' he answers.

It's a shocking scene, but far from sexual. Sean claims to be a reincarnation of Anna dead husband. His parents (Ted Levine and Cara Seymour) are understandably concerned, like Anna's mother (Lauren Bacall, magnificent and luminous). Anna's fiance (the great Danny Huston) is so disturbed he actually attempts to beat the kid, but Anna believes him, slowly, but surely. From there, the film exerts a fierce psychological hold, even when things get a little bogged down from a subplot involving a couple (Anne Heche and Peter Stormare) who knew Anna's husband. Glazer and his gifted cinematographer, Harris Savides, expertly create an atmosphere where anything seems possible. During a concert scene set to Wagner, the camera fixates on Anna, and Kidman, with a cropped 'do reminiscent of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby, ably shows us the emotion playing out across her face. It's one of her best performances, capping off a year in which she also starred in Lars Von Trier's Dogville. Birth will haunt your dreams. Allow it to do so.