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Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Alison Elliott ... see more see more... , Arliss Howard , Anne Heche , Peter Stormare , Ted Levine , Cara Seymour , Zoe Caldwell , Milo Addica , Jordan Lage , Novella Nelson , Mary Catherine Wright , Gregory Smith , T. Ryder Smith , John Juback , Laura Fallon , Tessa Auberjonois , Edward Bogdanowicz , Charles Goff , Michael Desautels , Scott Johnsen , Joe M. Chalmers , Sheila Smith , Elizabeth Greenberg , Michael Joseph Cortese Jr. , John Robert Tramutola , Margot Jewers , Matthew Giffuni , Ian Hoffberg , Kavita R. Mangroo , Alexandra K. Salo , Hollis Jones , Libby Skala , Bruce Bennetis , Jerry Fuentes

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, Birth takes place in New York's Upper East Side, where Anna (Nicole Kidman), a 35-year-old widow, resides. Just as Anna has shaken off what she thought were the final remn... read more read more...ants of her old life -- she has even found love with a new man, Joseph (Danny Huston), whom she plans on marrying -- Sean (Cameron Bright), a ten-year-old boy, comes into her life insisting that he is the reincarnation of her late husband. Though she initially brushes off the boy's claims as the result of a crush on her, his grave demeanor and uncanny knowledge of her life leads Anna through a self-reevaluation that not only threatens her marital plans with Joseph (Huston), but also strains her relationship with her mother, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall). ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Flixster Users

41% liked it

27,241 ratings

Critics

39% liked it

140 critics

R, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Jonathan Glazer, Alison Elliott, Shinya Sadamitsu, Anne Heche, Arliss Howard, Cameron Bright, Cara Seymour, Danny Huston, Joe M. Chalmers, Lauren Bacall, Michael Desautels, Nicole Kidman, Peter Stormare, Scott Johnsen, Ted Levine

Release Date: November 5, 2004

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DVD Release Date: April 19, 2005

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Stats: 1,623 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,623)

  • fb1563632850
    September 28, 2010
    fb1563632850
    wts
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    Creepy and disturbing and without any real conclusion. A disappointing film to be honest as I?ve been looking forward to watching this for a while. Still, Glazer's direction is faultless and every shot looks like a painting, it?s a shame then that the rest of the film spends less... read more time on the details and a great cast is left dangling not really knowing what to do with themselves. The soundtrack also made me feel a bit sick! I?ve given it an extra star for balls!
  • FiLmCrAzY
    April 24, 2009
    FiLmCrAzY
    It bored me really and i didnt finish it, it just was slow and boring
  • thmtsang
    December 20, 2008
    thmtsang
    Anna is a widow who is about to re-marry when a young boy claims to be her husband reincarnated. Some inappropriate scenes.
  • ironclad1609
    October 21, 2008
    ironclad1609
    The premise of this mystery drama is actually rather interesting: a jogger dies, a baby is born. Ten years later that baby is confronting the jogger's widow who is about to get married again, claiming to be her dead husband. Kidman, proofing once again that she is looking good in... read more any hairdo, gives a great performance. So does Anne Heche, whose character plays a big part in the mystery. The intentionally dismal look and hypnotic soundtrack make for an unsettling atmosphere. Sadly, the movie is falling to pieces when the solution is presented way too early and has nothing to add after that. It's merely a drama about grieve in the end, and not a really good one either.
  • dreamfaeries
    August 6, 2008
    dreamfaeries
    Odd, yet appealing.
  • arashxak
    April 26, 2008
    arashxak
    I think the main storyline is good but the movie fails miserably, I think the main promblem is the characterization of the child, The way Anna believes that he's Sean and falls in love with him again,the whole thing is not convincing and this is just the main problem IMO
  • puffchunk
    March 10, 2008
    puffchunk
    Nicole Kidman really crossed the line with this one. I thought fur was bad, but in this one she practically screws a 10 year old boy. It's a neat story idea, but prepare for uncomfortable scenes to watch with the whole family.
  • ceWEBrity
    February 13, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    Birth is a few decent ideas loaded in a mire of pretentious twaddle and coated up all austere and stately to make it seem like there's art to be found. You wanna throw around your pseudo-intellectual weight? Try defending this hatefully arrogant piece of trash. Everyone bitched a... read morebout this movie being CHILD PORN because Cameron Bright hopped in the bathtub with a woman three times his age, but what's really offensive about Birth is how awesome it thinks it is.

    I think the only thing I took away from this movie is the knowledge that Anne Heche can actually act if she feels like it. I already knew Nicole Kidman could, and this movie is basically just one gigantic stage for her to heave around her dramatics. That two minute shot of her face at the theater? There's a point where "look at the slowly degenerating emotional state of this woman" becomes "look at how well Nicole Kidman can subtly fluctuate her facial expressions" and this movie crosses it with splendid ignorance. And far be it from me to defend Crazy Almost Lesbian, but she's always the most watchable character on screen - for the love of God, she has energy! A personality, even! They are diamonds in the mound of placenta that is Birth.

    Wow, and is Cameron Bright bad. Sure, he plays his character okay, but it is ONE FACIAL EXPRESSION. ONE VOICE. The entire way through. He's in nearly every scene in the movie and he can't be arsed to add inflection or a eyebrow twitch or anything! Fucking hell. I could have given a better performance than that at 10. I hate Danny Huston in everything he's in so that's no big surprise; check him out in the scene where he goes after Sean. It provoked the strongest emotion I felt throughout the span of the movie...rollicking laughter. "He kicked my chair!!" Lauren Bacall manages to squeeze a tiny bit of character in the movie as well, but she is no more interesting than the rest of the yuppie saps on display.

    If you haven't picked it up already, my primary gripe with Birth is that it has confused artistic vision with utter sterilization. There's scarcely a drop of humanity to be found amidst the snowy landscapes and the oppressively beige color scheme. Stuffed with soft, lingering shots of Nicole Kidman silhouetted against city landscapes, it's obvious that Birth aspires to be "art". It's all well and good to have a pretty-looking movie, but Birth stops offering anything visually new within the first half hour; even in this department it fails. The music is another bid at adding class to this lame affair, but it's often out of place and feels just as pretentious as the rest of the movie. In its attempts to find this "art", it downplays its narrative to the point of minimalism. Not to knock on minimalism, but this movie's not having it.

    The premise is undeniably intriguing and unique, offering a trove of opportunities for characterization and drama. But why didn't Jonathan Glazer run with it all the way? He pussied out, to put it as clearly as possible without spoilers. Birth turns into a laughable episode of Scooby Doo within the final fifteen minutes, and despite Kidman's efforts to add dramatic validity to the proceedings, it is really laughable. No matter how hard she showboats, you just can't buy into this movie. It doesn't let you. There's no human angle, just walls upon walls of stifling faux-art tripe and manufactured restraint.

    I guess it's not really fair to say that there's no human angle, because the concept in itself is as human as you can get. It is then a testament to how bad Glazer fucked this one up that the warmth and pathos are sucked completely dry. For all the hullabaloo that surrounded this movie upon its release, it really should have been good enough to warrant it.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    January 9, 2008
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Very uncomfortable to sit through.

View All Birth Reviews

Critic Reviews

David Edelstein
November 11, 2004
David Edelstein, Slate

Unusually austere and ambiguous. Full Review

James Berardinelli
November 2, 2004
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

By trying to turn Birth into a thriller, the filmmakers undermine its intriguing issues. Full Review

David Denby
November 2, 2004
David Denby, New Yorker

A dismayingly skillful exercise in high-style creepiness.

Richard Roeper
November 1, 2004
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

I didn't find it spellbinding at all. Full Review

Stephanie Zacharek
October 30, 2004
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

The picture, as a whole, never gets beyond its surface. Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan
October 29, 2004
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

Too highbrow for the multiplex and too literal for the hipsters, it's unsatisfying both as gothic camp and serious cinema. Full Review

Teresa Wiltz
October 29, 2004
Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post

Mystery is fine. We like mystery. Muddle is another thing altogether, and jerking around the audience in the name of 'art' is pretty unforgivable. Full Review

Claudia Puig
October 29, 2004
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Presents an intriguing premise about death and the possibility of rebirth in an elegant, melancholy and deliberate fashion. Full Review

Peter Howell
October 29, 2004
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Lingering performances by Nicole Kidman and 11-year-old Canadian actor Cameron Bright, as well as assured direction by Glazer ... complement an unusually thoughtful script that uses a minimum of dialo... Full Review

Mick LaSalle
October 29, 2004
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The movie never delivers on its promises. Full Review

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