Birthday Girl Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)February 5th, 2002
BIRTHDAY GIRL (2000) Starring Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz and Kate Evans. Written by Tom Butterworth and Jez Butterworth. Directed by Jez Butterworth. Rated R.
A twisted love story that stretches plausibility beyond the breaking point, Birthday Girl refuses to allow itself to be categorized or taken seriously.
What begins as a mismatched love story soon deviates into a cat-and-mouse thriller highlighted by one of the strangest bank heists ever filmed.
Ben Chaplin stars as John Buckingham, who leads a rather dull life as a bank teller in a small English town. John appears to be a loner with few hobbies, except for jogging. A good-looking young man, John seems to be unlucky in love so he ventures onto the Internet to find a mail-order bride from Russia.
Soon Nadia (Nicole Kidman) enters his life. To John’s chagrin, she does not speak a word of English, despite the fact that he specifically ordered a bride who knew the language. She also smokes (he had requested a non-smoker).
However, Nadia soon learns to communicate with John in a universal language known to all men and women, and he changes his mind about putting her on the first plane back to Russia.
Despite the language barrier, John and Nadia begin to adjust to each other.
The reticent John has told no one at the bank about Nadia. He seems rather embarrassed by the entire concept of a mail-order bride.
Life seems blissful for the pair until Nadia’s birthday when two unexpected guests drop in — Nadia’s cousins, Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz) and Alexei (Vincent Cassel). The two are like the guests who came to stay, loud, obnoxious, speaking broken English and incessantly swilling vodka.
The polite, but befuddled, John allows them to stay for a while, but when their welcome wears out and he asks them to leave, things turn ugly.
Next thing you know Alexei is threatening Nadia unless John gets them some money. So, carrying Alexei’s two guitar cases into work, John enters the vault fills the cases and makes a hasty exit.
From there, the plot twists and turns, ending up back at the airport where John first met Nadia.
Chaplin acts the mild-mannered John as a deer caught in the headlights. He seems perpetually overwhelmed by all that is going on around him. He constantly maintains his British stiff-upper-lip attitude despite all the outrageousness.
He finally does let loose, but not in the manner an American audience would expect.
Kidman maintains a decent Russian accent and speaks the language as if born to it. Her Nadia, while pretty and seductive, also shows signs of vulnerability and cynicism.
Kassovitz, last seen as the love interest in Amelie, and Cassel, are not as menacing as needed to heighten the tension of John’s plight. They seem to be two good old Russian con men doing what they do to earn a dishonest pound or two.
A rather unexpected and satisfying finale may leave some viewers in disbelief, but I found it charming and emotionally correct.
Incredulity reigns here, as the police don’t seem to be searching too hard to find John or recover the stolen loot.
Birthday Girl is nothing more than a pulp, pot-boiler of a film, highlighted by the odd interaction between John and Nadia, which proves that love can hurt.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found by going to www.jconline.com and clicking on golafayette.
Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
