Birth

This subtle and haunting film features Kidman as Anna, a wealthy New York widow attempting to move on after the death of her husband, ten years previously. She has become engaged to another man, Joseph (Huston), to whom she appears utterly unsuited. The film's action is triggered by the arrival of Sean, a ten-year-old boy played by the wide-eyed and unaffected Bright. The child solemnly claims that he is the reincarnation of her former husband, also Sean, and Birth follows the reactions of Anna and her family to this possibility.  As the boy's claim gains in credibility and begins to gnaw away at the characters' cool scepticism, the tale gathers pace.

This film has achieved a certain amount of notoriety due to the 'bath-tub' scene between Anna and the young Sean. However, I feel that this is so sensitively directed that any possible controversy is simply unwarranted, and serves only to distract from the many other equally powerful moments. Kidman expertly displays the overwhelming consequences of grief during a three-minute close-up of Anna's face as she desperately tries to comprehend her situation.  This confusion is understandable given the remarkable ambiguity contained within Bright's performance. He portrays Sean as a deeply unsettling presence, and so intrigues the viewer that his character becomes the strongest drive towards the film's conclusion.

Light relief comes in crisp, biting form from Bacall as Anna's mother, who seems to represent the stiflingly oppressive atmosphere surrounding almost every event. Anna's social circle are privileged and cynical, and the artificial environment they create only makes her own position cinematically more interesting.

Visually the film possesses a dark, brooding kind of beauty. The term 'otherworldly' is perhaps over-used, but it has never seemed more appropriate than when applied to the tone set here by the wintry landscapes and ominously dim lighting. The score is no different, contributing heavily to a mounting sense of dread. Birth is fiercely original and refreshing in its treatment of love, death and reincarnation. As one of the most memorable, thought- provoking and rewarding films of 2004, it is unmissable.

Helen Carney