Birthday Girl
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Movie Reviews of Birthday Girl
Movie Review: Funnily absurd though maybe wise
Summary: 4 Stars
A small funny film. It is totally incredible, unbelievable, impossible. But it is funny how an introverted masochist can become totally dependent and mesmerized, even hypnotized by a girl he hardly knows but who was able to get down into his phantasms. Of course it is a denunciation of the foolish deals you can get to on the Internet. You must not believe ten percent of what you're told there and never, ever, ever accept to tie up your hands in a way or another to someone or something or some organization you do not know personally. Most of their "businesses" there are in a way or another going to fool you and raid you. But here the chap deserves being the victim of such gangsters because he is not only naïve, he is absurdly silly. But then the film becomes funny because it ends up with the victim of the crooked business having the upper hand and ending up playing the same game with his victimizer and winning. One think is sure too. Security in English airports is not exactly what it should be, but I guess it's not better anywhere else in the world and even now they have tightened up all rules and regulations it is just fun to go through their procedures and foil them systematically. Then they have their vengeance by losing your luggage, a real plague on modern airports, and don't expect to get fair compensation. Or even confiscating a bottle opener or a can opener because it may be dangerous. I can see myself cutting my way through the side of the plane with a can opener. Funny, isn't it?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Movie Review: eventually derails, but fun while it lasts
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll start out with saying that all of the actors have done better films than this one, and in comparison their acting here is rather disappointing, but that's more a fault of under-developed characters than lack of talent. The Birthday Girl seems to try for something darker than it actually becomes and it looks like all the actors are just moonlighting.
John (Chaplin), a lonely bank teller, orders a mail order bride (Kidman) from Russia, only to discover when she gets here that she doesn't speak a word of English and isn't what she seems. Mayhem ensues when two of her friends come for her birthday. And although the idea of a Russian mail order bride may seem like a great idea on paper, the execution of it in this film disappoints.
The first half of the film is quite entertaining, as Ben Chaplin proves to be quite adept at walking the fine line between black comedy and pathos. We like his character even if we're particularly impressed by him. The monotony of his life is portrayed humorously if not particularly inventively. But he and Kidman don't have the combustible chemistry that the film requires, you can see them as friends but not anything else. Still they have enough to keep the film going until it derails with the arrival of Vincent Cassel and mattieu kassovitz. Their characters are caricatures and serve very little narrative purpose but there they are ruining the second half of the film. Birthay Girl is mostly forgettable, except for perhaps the scenes at the bank where John works which are very funny.
*I gave this film 4 stars because of the robbie williams music video included, otherwise a 3/
Movie Review: She Sparkles
Summary: 4 Stars
"Birthday Girl" is excellent because of the wonderful performance of Nicole Kidman. She shows herself to be an actress of great depth by the distinct characters she has chosen to play. In the bonus materials, Ben Chaplin describes that he was working with an "actress," not a movie star. She is marvelous as the girl who smiles and says "Yes" when asked if she's a giraffe. Ben Chaplin seems to generate good chemistry with her as the wild-eyed innocent who falls for her. We see the plot weave back and forth and wonder who will end up with whom. Vincent Cassel as Alexi and Mathieu Kassovitz as Yuri turn in great performances. The accomplishment seems even greater when you realize that neither of these two nor Kidman speak Russian. Cassel and Kassovitz are famous French actors; Kidman learned Russian from a woman in the Russian embassy in Australia. Jez Butterworth does slingshot us through great changes. The scene where Nicole almost gets boiling water poured on her head was almost too much for me. Always the sucker for the happy ending, I was glad to see Kidman and Chaplin walk off hand in hand to Russia, knowing that we're seeing happily ever after and not just a romance til the end of next week. I didn't fully understand why Chaplin was attracted to bondage. It didn't seem to add much to the romantic aspect of the film, but did show how far Nadia (NK) would go. All in all, this film is great to watch brilliant actors at their craft. Enjoy!Movie Review: Nicole and Chaplin incredibly worked well together
Summary: 4 Stars
Rated as an "erotic comedy" (by its own director), "Birthday girl" is a funny and interesting low-budget british movie, based on a quite obvious but functional script. Ben Chaplin plays John, the nerdy guy who, while surfing the net, finds a site named "From Russia With Love". The site provides british guys with russian women who want to be married in England. Chaplin has the perfect face of the freightened but semi-strong-willed type who thinks his life [stinks] but has no power to improve it. Nicole Kidman is the perfect quasi-naive russian girl with huge sex-appeal. The pair is perfect on screen. Nicole Kidamn didn't speak a word of russian, but found out a way to look like she was a native from Moscow. That's the kind of actress she is. After stepping out of the shadow of her ex-husband, Nicole has been elevated as the top actress of her generation, and I think she deserves it. Two french actors, Vincent Cassell and Mathiew Kassovitz, as "Nadia"'s strange, funny and sometimes violent cousins, give the movie the right tone between morbid and comedy. When these two "cousins" arrive at John's door, the situation gets out of control, and John's life will be agitated beyond his wildest dreams.
As it may seem in a quick glance, "Birthday girl" is not just a funny and stupid-looking movie. It has some deeper meanings (not that much deep, but they're there); it's a modern movie that deals with current possible situations.
Grade 8.0/10
Movie Review: Better than expected
Summary: 4 Stars
I was compelled to write this review to defend the movie against the mostly negative criticism it has received. I watched it recently, and enjoyed it more than I expected to. I don't know why it is, but people just don't like to have their movie genres mixed-up. Yes you could say it's part romantic comedy, part thriller, part drama...but so was "Nurse Betty" and that's a really good film. In places the film is laugh-out-loud funny (usually from one of Ben Chaplin's lines), and at other times it's serious. Both Kidman and Chaplin give good performances, and the pace is kept reasonably tight with a not-too-long running time. Kidman is convincing as the russian mail order bride, and Chaplin delivers most of the film's laughs. I liked it near the end when Kidman turns the joke of saying "yes" to everything back on Chaplin!. My only point of contention with the movie (***POSSIBLE SPOILER***) is where Chaplin's character is forced to rob a bank...why didn't he just go straight to the police? This bothered me for a while, but by the end of the movie I was willing to overlook it.Ebert & Roeper (who gave it two thumbs down) said the movie was "predictable" - to me it was anything BUT predictable. Unless you want your movies neatly filed under distinctive categories/genres, I urge you to give this film a go...you may be surprised.