Birthday Girl

Mild-mannered bachelor bank teller near London advertises for a Russian wife on the internet, and is disappointed when the young lady who shows up at the airport doesn't speak any English (she's a willing sport in bed, however); when two of her Russian buddies show up at his house, the man realizes he's been set up to rob his own bank, yet still feels a connection to this strange, sexy woman. Peculiar, darkly comic series of confusions, double crosses, bedroom fetishes (and ants!) written by the team of Tom and Jez Butterworth (Jez also directed, while Steve Butterworth produced). It was obviously a labor of love for the group, and they could not have found better leads than Nicole Kidman and handsome Ben Chaplin, both excellent in their roles. Still, the script disappoints--it's all over the map--and by the third act we've lost something intrinsic in the characters. Chaplin (who amusingly resembles both Joaquin Phoenix and Steve Carrell) is never humiliated on-screen (he's treated badly but always rebounds and looks after himself); still, the man's anger is released in odd ways (too much slapping) and we never understand his attachment to Kidman's Russian vixen. Is this an emotional connection or is it purely physical? Well-made movie has some fine, prickly moments (mostly in the first hour). It loses itself in its circular twists, swallowing its tail in the bargain, however the film is still a decent attempt at something different. ** from ****

This is a clever, funny, sexy movie that starts as a romantic comedy and then becomes an edgy thriller.

Nerdy bank clerk, John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin) lives in a semi-rural town not far from London. When he orders a Russian mail order bride over the Internet, she duly self-delivers herself to the airport in the form of Nadia (Nicole Kidman). One of his main requirements in the arrangement was, "Someone you can really talk to. I think communication is key". But as John drives her home, he realises that Nadia can't speak English - or seems not to.

Although John at first desperately tries to contact the aptly named 'From Russia with Love' marriage agency to cancel the deal, the language barrier becomes far less important when he discovers that Nadia is sexually adventurous and encourages him to indulge his every fantasy with her.

Everything seems to be going perfectly for John until Nadia's Russian cousin, Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz), and his friend Alexei (Vincent Cassel) turn up and overwhelm his life. Effusively friendly at first, they soon prove disturbingly dangerous, and John realises that all is not as it seems.

The plot heads into unpredictable territory and although the ending is pretty crazy it is also satisfying in light of all the revelations that take place along the way.

The film has a lightness of touch, but also a dark side. If I could compare it with any other film it might be Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" - the sexually aggressive girl, the nerdy guy, the slowly blossoming relationship and the intrusion of a psychotic and dangerous boyfriend. The basic ingredients work in both movies.

Ben Chaplin hits just the right note as the colourless bank clerk who actually has a repressed wild side, he just needs the right person to unlock it and set it loose. His performance is both funny and engaging.

Pretty, sexy, and slim almost to the point of fragility, Nicole Kidman's Nadia looks vulnerable, but as we discover as the story unfolds, looks are deceiving. This is a captivating performance; she has little dialogue - and half of that is in Russian.

The amazing Vincent Cassel plays Alexei. No one can play dangerous like this guy. I didn't realise that he made "Birthday Girl" before "Irreversible". His role here was a good warm up, he exudes unpredictability - look at that martial arts kick he does when he is jogging with John. It is an indication of John's growth of character when he actually takes him on.

A lot of reviewers regard this as a flawed work, but I'm not so sure I can see the flaws. I enjoyed it from start to finish - I couldn't see how it was actually going to end, but it felt about right when it did.

For a film that got little publicity, and few people have heard about, this was pretty good. It's another one of these modern-day British crime films that are quirky ("Snatch," "Sexy Beast," etc.). It's not wild like "Snatch" but it's interesting and it has some rough characters.

It also has a corny and somewhat predictable ending but early in the show - not late - has some neat twists to make it very interesting for the first-time viewer. Basically, it's about a low-key British male who sends away for a Russian "mail order bride" who winds up, with the aid of two Russian male friends, providing a couple of big surprises.

Ben Chapin and Nicole Kidman co-star, and are very good as are Vincent Cassel and Matthieu Kassovitz as Kidman's Russian cohorts. This is a different kind of film and well-acted. Kidman once again proves she's far more than just a beautiful face.

Ben Chaplin and Nicole Kidman are great together! The soundtrack is absolutely wonderful! Vincent Cassel is wild, he's always a great actor with range. Wasn't expecting some of the things that occur Birthday Girl is pleasant surprise.

This film would have played better as a romantic comedy. Instead it was neither one thing nor another. All the performances were good, but somehow it missed the mark. More like a satire of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. The plot was too silly for a thriller, the characters were caricatures and the uptight bank clerk would have gone to the police immediately they demanded cash. As a comedy, they could have got away with a preposterous plot and the equally preposterous ending, but as a thriller, it simply fell flat.

Nicole Kidman can successfully play the sort of girl who could be a real head turner if she didn't dress like trash, combed her hair, got washed, and stopped lighting one cigarette from another. The scenes of her puffing away on a cigarette casually hanging from the side of her mouth were hilarious. She probably substituted flea market perfume for deodorant. The two Russian accomplices were also good, and Ben Chaplin was suitably uptight as the "victim". At first I thought he was too handsome to get a mail order bride, but to have made him a geek would have been too predictable. There are many handsome and successful men who just seem to strike out with the ladies.

Overall, I would rate this OK if you have absolutely nothing better to do.