‘Birth‘ (2004), directed by Jonathan Glazer is a strange and original film that has the potential to take many viewers out of their comfort zone. It’s beautifully shot and the soundtrack uses classic techniques where the music envelops and amplifies the story on screen. These characteristics as well as the female protagonist shrouded in ambiguity and blonde on top immediately bring to mind Hitchcock’s classic psychological thrillers. However, the plot is much darker and from this point of view the reference creator seems to be rather Roman Polanski. A film with quite a few ‘white spots’, which, however, has the chance of a more than satisfactory contemporary viewing.
The story takes place in the environment of the wealthy society of Manhattan. The opening scene happens in Central Park. We see a man (actually his silhouette) jogging and at one point collapsing under a bridge. The next scene (and the rest of the story) takes place 10 years later. Anna, the widow of the man whose name was Sean, visits his grave at the cemetery. Then she returns to the car where the man she is about to remarry was waiting for her. Next comes the party where the two announce the happy event. The course of the heroes’ lives is disturbed by the appearance of a ten-year-old boy who claims to be the reincarnation of Sean. Anna, her fiancé and the good families that surround them are skeptical of the story. And yet young Sean knows many of the most personal details about the family and the intimate relationships between Anna and Sean. Anna’s confidence begins to waver. In fact, she had never come to terms with Sean’s death. A new opportunity, no matter how strange the situation?
In describing such unusual situations, screenwriters and directors have two approaches at hand: either to provide, preferably in the last scene of the film, a logical explanation for what was happening on the screen, including facts or phenomena that go beyond the normal and rational ; or go along the lines of the fantastic, absorbing the viewers into a world with different logics than the one in which we live. Jonathan Glazer and his co-writers walk the line of the fantastic for a good part of the time, only to make a 180-degree turn at the end. The performance is technically excellent. Nicole Kidman creates here one of the best roles of her career. Lauren Bacall, who in 2004 was entering her seventh decade as an actress, a decade during which she continued to be active until almost the end, appears in a fairly consistent role. The rest of the cast, however, falls behind in my opinion and this is why this film lacks the consistent quality and failed to achieve the success it could have had. In such a movie, where the key character is a ten-year-old boy, I found the choice of the young actor uninspired. Through him, Sean’s personality (the silhouette in the opening scene) should have taken shape, or it doesn’t. Instead of a mystery, we are offered as an explanation a character deviation that is too weakly substantiated and too easily solved. ‘Birth‘ could have been a great film. As it is it remains just a film that – for better or worse reasons – we will hardly forget. But even that is no little achievement.