Birth

Drama/Mystery — 100 min — Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Alison Elliott, Arliss Howard
Anna is a young widow who is finally getting on with her life after the death of her husband, Sean. Now engaged to be married, Anna meets a ten-year-old boy who tells her he is Sean reincarnated. Though his story is both unsettling and absurd, Anna can't get the boy out of her mind. And much to the concern of her fiancée, her increased contact with him leads her to question the choices she has made in her life.

Nicole is one of my favorite actresses, mostly for her looks, but she sometimes performes well too. First saw her at the movies in Dead Calm back in 1989 and has been a sucker for her ever since. She does a good job here, but nothing stellar. The director's lingering shots on lovely Nic was sometimes almost annoying, especially the scene in the theater where he kept the camera close-up on her face for what seemed an eternity (20-30 seconds?) The supporting cast did an adequate job, but it's the story that felt jumbled in places, and to me it felt like they had cut too much out, and left the wrong things in. At times it just dragged it's feet at an incredibly slow pace.
All is not bad though, as Sean, played by Cameron Bright was great. He stole the whole show from Nicole, indeed that whole movie. He was so calm and it seemed so natural for him to be an adult. It's a rare thing, to find a kid in a movie nowadays that's not in the least annoying as hell. He did an great job for one so young, and I wish Hollywood won't make him into another Haley Joel Osment (6th Sense) that makes you wanna puke every time you even catch a glance of his face. Cameron was just the opposite. I wan't to see him in more films. The much talked about bathtub scene with Nic turned out to be nothing at all. You need to drop that bible and relax for a second.

My Rating: 5 / 10 (+1 for Cameron's performance)