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Birthday Girl
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // August 13, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
A quirky little movie that never quite figures out what it wants to be, "Birthday Girl" reportedly sat on the shelf for around a year before Nicole Kidman's performances in "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others" (both of which were Oscar-worthy performances) had distributor Miramax schedule a release to capitalize on Kidman's popularity.
Ben Chaplin ("Truth about Cats and Dogs") stars as John Buckingham, a normal guy who is looking for a relationship and not managing to find one. Rather than going to a bar, he goes quite a few steps further and gets himself a mail-order bride who looks an awful lot like Nicole Kidman. This new wife, named Nadia, is obviously hiding some secrets from her new mate, which are quickly revealed as he suspiciously states that her letters were in English, while she can barely speak a word of it.
Sort of like the Antonio Banderas/Angelina Jolie drama "Original Sin" without the beautiful locations or unintentional laughs, "Birthday Girl" can't seem to decide what it wants to be. As the two newlyweds return to the tiny neighborhood, the film seems as if it wants to be one of those colorful comedies along the lines of "Greenfingers". Then it turns into a romance and, eventually, when Nadia's two friends (Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz, the writer/director and one of the stars of the brilliant French drama "La Haine") show up, a crime movie.
Yet, the film doesn't handle the characters quite right or make a whole lot of sense. Chaplin's John is a character that's awfully difficult to care about. Even when it's become all-too-obvious early on that his new bride may not be who he thought she is, he still keeps her around, as he doesn't seem to know what else to do (although it seems she does). Kidman's Nadia is not a whole lot better; while she does provide a capable Russian accent, she's given little to do. Angelina Jolie, playing a similar character in "Original Sin", was much more seductive and sinister.
Additionally, the film suffers from the fact that it's not only uneventful (clocking in at a hair under 90 minutes), but predictable. Really, one of the few positive elements of the film is the work from Oliver Stapleton ("State and Main", "Shipping News"). Other than that, there's just not much to the film, which varies in tone and features some absurd and not particularly well-defined characters.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Birthday Girl" is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen by Miramax Home Video. Although certainly not a terrible effort, this is not one of the studio's finer recent presentations. Sharpness and detail are decent, if not terribly good, as some of the more dimly-lit scenes lack definition.
Flaws pop up at a rate more frequent than I'd expect for a recent film. Some minor, but noticable, instances of pixelation appear during a handful of scenes. Edge enhancement also is noticable, while the print used doesn't appear entirely clean either, revealing a few specks and marks.
The film offers a fairly subtle color palette, but the colors that are presented appeared well-rendered and without flaw. Overall, this is an average offering that suffers from concerns in several scenes.
SOUND: "Birthday Girl" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Miramax. However, this film really doesn't have much use for sound, offering only a very front-focused audio presentation. Dialogue remained clear and crisp throughout, as did the music.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main & sub-menus.
EXTRAS: A 6-minute "making of" featurette, the video with Kidman and Robbie Williams for "Somethin' Stupid" as well as "Sneak Peek" trailers for "The Others" (an enormously better Kidman film), "In The Bedroom", "Amelie" (a great film), "Shipping News" and "Gangs of New York".
Final Thoughts: While not the worst film I've seen lately, "Birthday Girl" is an uneven, slight attempt at...well, I'm still not entirely sure what this movie was supposed to be. Kidman's okay, but that's about it. Miramax's rather featureless disc offers decent audio/video. Kidman fans may want to try the DVD as a rental, but I don't recommend the film.
A quirky little movie that never quite figures out what it wants to be, "Birthday Girl" reportedly sat on the shelf for around a year before Nicole Kidman's performances in "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others" (both of which were Oscar-worthy performances) had distributor Miramax schedule a release to capitalize on Kidman's popularity.
Ben Chaplin ("Truth about Cats and Dogs") stars as John Buckingham, a normal guy who is looking for a relationship and not managing to find one. Rather than going to a bar, he goes quite a few steps further and gets himself a mail-order bride who looks an awful lot like Nicole Kidman. This new wife, named Nadia, is obviously hiding some secrets from her new mate, which are quickly revealed as he suspiciously states that her letters were in English, while she can barely speak a word of it.
Sort of like the Antonio Banderas/Angelina Jolie drama "Original Sin" without the beautiful locations or unintentional laughs, "Birthday Girl" can't seem to decide what it wants to be. As the two newlyweds return to the tiny neighborhood, the film seems as if it wants to be one of those colorful comedies along the lines of "Greenfingers". Then it turns into a romance and, eventually, when Nadia's two friends (Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz, the writer/director and one of the stars of the brilliant French drama "La Haine") show up, a crime movie.
Yet, the film doesn't handle the characters quite right or make a whole lot of sense. Chaplin's John is a character that's awfully difficult to care about. Even when it's become all-too-obvious early on that his new bride may not be who he thought she is, he still keeps her around, as he doesn't seem to know what else to do (although it seems she does). Kidman's Nadia is not a whole lot better; while she does provide a capable Russian accent, she's given little to do. Angelina Jolie, playing a similar character in "Original Sin", was much more seductive and sinister.
Additionally, the film suffers from the fact that it's not only uneventful (clocking in at a hair under 90 minutes), but predictable. Really, one of the few positive elements of the film is the work from Oliver Stapleton ("State and Main", "Shipping News"). Other than that, there's just not much to the film, which varies in tone and features some absurd and not particularly well-defined characters.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Birthday Girl" is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen by Miramax Home Video. Although certainly not a terrible effort, this is not one of the studio's finer recent presentations. Sharpness and detail are decent, if not terribly good, as some of the more dimly-lit scenes lack definition.
Flaws pop up at a rate more frequent than I'd expect for a recent film. Some minor, but noticable, instances of pixelation appear during a handful of scenes. Edge enhancement also is noticable, while the print used doesn't appear entirely clean either, revealing a few specks and marks.
The film offers a fairly subtle color palette, but the colors that are presented appeared well-rendered and without flaw. Overall, this is an average offering that suffers from concerns in several scenes.
SOUND: "Birthday Girl" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Miramax. However, this film really doesn't have much use for sound, offering only a very front-focused audio presentation. Dialogue remained clear and crisp throughout, as did the music.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main & sub-menus.
EXTRAS: A 6-minute "making of" featurette, the video with Kidman and Robbie Williams for "Somethin' Stupid" as well as "Sneak Peek" trailers for "The Others" (an enormously better Kidman film), "In The Bedroom", "Amelie" (a great film), "Shipping News" and "Gangs of New York".
Final Thoughts: While not the worst film I've seen lately, "Birthday Girl" is an uneven, slight attempt at...well, I'm still not entirely sure what this movie was supposed to be. Kidman's okay, but that's about it. Miramax's rather featureless disc offers decent audio/video. Kidman fans may want to try the DVD as a rental, but I don't recommend the film.
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