Running time: 93 minutes
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Stephen Mangan
Rating 5 out of 10
If you sent away for a Russian mail order bride and Nicole Kidman showed up you'd think there was a catch. And you'd be right. Birthday Girl is a warped romantic drama about the perils of computer matchmaking. It's also a film that relies on spirit rather than close scrutiny to maintain its tenuous grasp on credulity. In a recent interview, writer and director Jez Butterworth said "I can't write entirely serious stuff, sooner or later I see the absurdity in something and am forced to try and bring it out". Unfortunately this absurdity weakens Birthday Girl, with the result that it is as unconvincing as it is unfulfilling.
Butterworth, who wrote and directed 1997's Mojo based on his award winning play, has not only chosen to set Birthday Girl in his home county of Hertfordshire, but has also not strayed too far when looking for people to collaborate with. His brother Tom helped write the script, while another brother, Stephen, is one of the producers. Involving so many family members may well have made the whole venture cosier for the Butterworths, but it's hard not to speculate at what cost. Perhaps a stronger outside influence would have lent the film more discipline and cohesion.
John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) is a socially awkward bank clerk from St Albans who turns to the From Russia With Love mail order bride agency in the hope of finding someone to fill his empty life. When the seductive Nadia (Nicole Kidman) steps off the plane, even the staid John flickers an expression of satisfaction. It's a feeling quickly tempered by her vomiting stop on the way home from the airport and the realisation that contrary to her bio, she doesn't speak a word of English. John makes a number of increasingly desperate calls to the agency before Nadia provides him with a convincing reason to let her stay.
With the language of sex overcoming their linguistic barrier, things begin to go more smoothly until a birthday party for Nadia brings the arrival of her two mysterious friends Alexei (Vincent Cassel) and Yuri (Matthieu Kassovitz). It's from this point on, as the plot takes on a darker and more violent hue, that Birthday Girl becomes dependent on greater leaps of faith. Its twists and turns seem arbitrary with too many elements included for no apparent reason. The film has some almost impenetrably black comic moments and Chaplin is perfect as the ultra droll John, but all the characters seem to exist in a void making them hard to identify with. In the end it's not that there are too many unanswered questions, it's just that you don't care what the answers are.
Butterworth, who wrote and directed 1997's Mojo based on his award winning play, has not only chosen to set Birthday Girl in his home county of Hertfordshire, but has also not strayed too far when looking for people to collaborate with. His brother Tom helped write the script, while another brother, Stephen, is one of the producers. Involving so many family members may well have made the whole venture cosier for the Butterworths, but it's hard not to speculate at what cost. Perhaps a stronger outside influence would have lent the film more discipline and cohesion.
John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) is a socially awkward bank clerk from St Albans who turns to the From Russia With Love mail order bride agency in the hope of finding someone to fill his empty life. When the seductive Nadia (Nicole Kidman) steps off the plane, even the staid John flickers an expression of satisfaction. It's a feeling quickly tempered by her vomiting stop on the way home from the airport and the realisation that contrary to her bio, she doesn't speak a word of English. John makes a number of increasingly desperate calls to the agency before Nadia provides him with a convincing reason to let her stay.
With the language of sex overcoming their linguistic barrier, things begin to go more smoothly until a birthday party for Nadia brings the arrival of her two mysterious friends Alexei (Vincent Cassel) and Yuri (Matthieu Kassovitz). It's from this point on, as the plot takes on a darker and more violent hue, that Birthday Girl becomes dependent on greater leaps of faith. Its twists and turns seem arbitrary with too many elements included for no apparent reason. The film has some almost impenetrably black comic moments and Chaplin is perfect as the ultra droll John, but all the characters seem to exist in a void making them hard to identify with. In the end it's not that there are too many unanswered questions, it's just that you don't care what the answers are.
