Tagline: She wished her husband would come back from the dead. Now, he is back.
Maverick filmmaker Jonathan Glazer affirms the promise of his brilliant debut, Sexy Beast, with his new film Birth, teaming with Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman for a metaphysical love story that explores the space between what we know and what we feel. Kidman stars as Anna, a delicate young widow who is on the verge of a new life when a solemn little boy appears, claiming to be the reincarnation of her dead husband.
As Anna, Kidman achieves a breathtaking emotional transparency to portray an intelligent woman who discovers another side of herself in the face of a bizarre, yet tantalizing possibility. The actress is beautifully paired with Canadian child actor Cameron Bright, who portrays the boy interloper with a haunting stillness and conviction.
Bringing an assured sense of style and form to a decidedly unconventional narrative, Glazer creates a world that is at once strange and familiar, like a fairy tale. And like many fairy tales, Birth is part romance, part mystery, and part family drama – woven into a magical whole about love, mortality and the unknown.
Ten years after the sudden death of her beloved husband Sean, Anna (Nicole Kidman) is finally ready to emerge from the shadow of grief and begin a new chapter in her life. She has agreed to marry Joseph (Danny Huston), a good-humored, cultured man who has patiently courted the lovely young widow for three years.
Anna’s decision pleases her mother Eleanor (Lauren Bacall), an elegant and commanding woman who has welcomed Joseph into the family’s spacious apartment on New York’s aristocratic Upper East Side. The apartment has been Anna’s home since Sean’s death, and it is also the present residence of her pregnant sister Laura (Alison Elliot) and Laura’s husband Bob (Arliss Howard), who are having their own home remodeled. And it is there that friends and relatives gather one night for Anna and Joseph’s engagement party.
Birth is a 2004 American drama film directed by Jonathan Glazer, starring Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Arliss Howard, Peter Stormare, Anne Heche, Ted Levine, Cara Seymour, Novella Nelson and Zoe Caldwell.
The film follows Anna (Kidman), the daughter of a prominent Manhattan-based family. Anna gradually becomes convinced that her deceased husband, Sean, has been reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy (also named Sean). Anna’s initial scepticism is swayed by the child’s intimate knowledge of the former married couple’s life. Despite critical praise for various components of the film, including Kidman’s acting and Glazer’s direction, Birth received mixed reviews.
Distributed by New Line Cinema, the film’s worldwide box office earnings total was US$23,925,492. Birth was ranked 12th on its opening weekend, garnering USD$1,705,577 from 550 theaters. The worldwide box office earnings total was US$23,925,492, with US$5,095,038 in the United States (US) and US$18,830,454 in markets outside of the US.
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Birth (2004)
Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Arliss Howard, Peter Stormare, Anne Heche, Ted Levine, Cara Seymour, Novella Nelson, Zoe Caldwell
Screenplay by: Jonathan Glazer, Jean-Claude Carriere, Milo Addica
Production Design by: Kevin Thompson
Cinematography by: Harris Savides
Film Editing by: Sam Sneade, Claus Wehlisch
Costume Design by: John Dunn
Set Decoration by: Ford Wheeler
Art Direction by: Jonathan Arkin
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: November 5, 2004
Visits: 110
