| Show Birth Is ort The Journey Kenneth iran 1 Los Angeles Times Birth might be more accurately accurately accurately called Rebirth Lit up by byan byan byan an incandescent Nicole Kidman performance this adventurous film daring and frustrating by turn uses cinematic skill to raise provocative questions about love belief memory and reincarnation As a demonstration of the power as well as the limitations of exceptional exceptional exceptional filmmaking its it's as unsettling unsettling unsettling unset unset- and unusual as anything youre you're likely to see The directorial skill belongs to Jonathan Glazer who had the idea for Birth before he made the Ben starring Kingsley-starring Sexy Beast his knockout feature debut Working with two screenwriters screenwriters screenwriters screen screen- writers the veteran Jean-Claude Jean Carriere who's collaborated with everyone from Luis to the Dalai Lama Larna and Milo of Monsters Ball Glazer elaborated ed on the notion of a woman Kidman confronted by a ten- ten year-old year boy who convincingly insists hes he's the reincarnation of her dead husband Though the narrative thrust of Birth deals with whether this boys boy's claims can be believed or not its subtext is if anything more fascinating How would we react if the fantasy of rebirth turned into something like a nightmare if the person we loved came back in a form different than the one he or she left in In a battle between the pull of the past and the reality of the present how conquering all-conquering would love manage to be 11 n Its It's a tribute to Glazers i exceptional filmmaking gifts that he turns this wildly implausible notion into something we are impelled to take seriously If Birth is not a wire-to-wire wire success success success suc suc- cess the skill and intensity with which it its it's s 's done make it more involving than some more conventionally conventionally conventionally conven conven- successful efforts Its It's so good at what it does it finally paints itself into a corner other films dont don't have the skill to get anywhere near One of the reasons reason's for Births indelibility is Kidman's success asa asa as asa a widow named Anna whom we first meet ten years after her husbands husband's husbands husband's husbands husband's hus hus- bands band's death With the films film's emotional emotional emotional emo emo- weight riding on her performance performance performance mance and her hair cut Jean short to accentuate the play of events on her face the actress is so ferociously caught up in the drama that we are forced to believe in it as well Kidman has made a point of using her stardom to embrace d daring ring projects and Birth shows the benefits of that stance for both her and us Before we get to Anna we get to watch her husband Sean jogging through Manhattans Manhattan's snowy Central Park on the way to his demise Its It's a bravura tracking shot engineered by master cinematographer cinematographer cinematographer Harris Gus us van vanSant's vanSant's vanSant's demonstrates demonstrates demonstrates demon demon- Sant's Elephant and it strates from the go get-go what an impeccable eye and true visual flair Glazer and his team are going to bring to bear on the material Glazer also wonderfully layers in music by composer Alexander as well as s Richard Wagner throughout the film using it to underline emotion in unexpected ways A decade after Seans Sean's demise Anna is about to be married to Joseph Danny Huston a suitor who fits in well with her wealthy Upper East Side clan headed by mother Eleanor Lauren Bacall A swank engagement party is unfolding one that seems to discomfort discomfort discomfort dis dis- dis- dis comfort her late husband Seans Sean's old friends Clara and Clifford Anne Heche and Peter as much as it cheers Annas Anna's sister and her husband Alison Elliot and Arliss Howard Into this room walks another year ten-year-old Sean Weve We've glimpsed him in to the lobby of Annas Anna's building building building build build- ing and now hes he's in her apartment insisting Its me Sean youre you're my See Birth continued on page 6 Birth continued from page 5 wife and saying she should under no circumstances marry Joseph Naturally the adults are prone to laugh this off but as beautifully played by the unblinkingly somber Cameron Bright this ten year old with an adults adult's and an uncanny knowledge of the other Seans Sean's life is impost t t t sible to laugh off Gradually implacably Joseph and Anna find their lives impacted by this insistent insistent insistent tent figure Huston badly miscast in John Sayles' Sayles recent Silver City comes back backwith backwith backwith with a vengeance as Annas Anna's increasingly shaken fiance projecting a combination of oily uncertainty and dismayed dismayed dismayed dis dis- dis- dis rectitude that perfectly captures a complex character What the intelligently spooky y Birth does best is r disturb us not just with scenes like Anna and the young Sean sharing a tub but by making us consider possibilities possibilities possibilities wed we'd rather not If the film ends up making debatable plot choices that dilute its impact its it's a tribute to how much weve we've come to care car that we find them unpalatable Both on screen and off its it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all r r. r |
