A great little gem, Birthday Girl
09-05-02, 02:47 PM
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A great little gem, Birthday Girl
l love to rent the lone movie, the odd movie, the one that you never heard much about, or nothing about. These movies are mostly crap but once in awhile a gem pops up. These moments are the best of all of my viewing moments.
To me, to be surprised by a underhyped gem is much more gratifying than to be mildly entertained by an overhyped blockbuster.
The first one I posted here was "Suckers". A real one copy wonder and one I still smile at viewing it after many months. Now comes "Birthday Girl".
It met all my criteria for the "one copy wonder". There was only one copy, It had interesting actors and it had Nicole. I must confess I would watch anything with Nicole Kidman in it.
The movie was great. Nicole was great. I was in "one copy wonder" heaven. You must try this little gem about a very odd guy that sent for a Russian wife through the internet and all the wacky things that happen until a very satisfying ending.
To me, to be surprised by a underhyped gem is much more gratifying than to be mildly entertained by an overhyped blockbuster.
The first one I posted here was "Suckers". A real one copy wonder and one I still smile at viewing it after many months. Now comes "Birthday Girl".
It met all my criteria for the "one copy wonder". There was only one copy, It had interesting actors and it had Nicole. I must confess I would watch anything with Nicole Kidman in it.
The movie was great. Nicole was great. I was in "one copy wonder" heaven. You must try this little gem about a very odd guy that sent for a Russian wife through the internet and all the wacky things that happen until a very satisfying ending.
09-06-02, 05:32 PM
#4
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Just to add to the discussion, here's the review of it I wrote for my local paper (where I work, well, sometimes) -- I thought it was a fun little flick.
The right actor can liven up even the worst of scripts. I could easily listen to the great Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman reading selections from "People" magazine, for example. Now, a great actor isn't going to make gold out of garbage, but they can at least make it tolerable.
So it goes with Nicole Kidman's "Birthday Girl," a featherweight but fitfully enjoyable romantic comedy/thriller. Filmed back in 1999, this movie was only theatrically released briefly earlier this year to capitalize on Kidman's "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others" success. As a result, it's got a cozy, independent film feel unlike either of those more polished blockbusters.
Ben Chapin plays John Buckingham, a blank-faced, dull British bank teller whose lonely desperation leads him to order a Russian girlfriend over the Internet. What arrives is Nadia (Kidman), a pale, mascara-smeared, gypsy-like vision who, despite the Internet company's promises, doesn't speak English and isn't quite the perfect wife Buckingham hoped for. Yet despite their differences, the two find a kinky kind of common ground in the bedroom. Unfortunately, love doesn't quite rule the day when several of Kidman's Russian countrymen barge into Buckingham's life, setting in motion a series of scams, abductions and double-crossings.
Kidman's spicy, kittenish performance makes this movie hum along at a brisk pace; it's as different from her "Moulin Rouge" performance as her "The Others" role was from that one. Her Russian language scenes, to my admittedly untrained ears, sounded quite natural. Nadia's character changes several times in the course of "Birthday Girl," and Kidman makes us buy it all. Chapin ("The Thin Red Line") is an able match, embodying the repressed British dweeb stereotype.
Still, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense. A bank heist seems a little too casual to be believable, even in small-town Britain, and lighthearted scenes dealing with airline security, post-9/11, are awkward to watch. If you get caught up enough in the banter between Kidman and Chapin, though, it doesn't seem that important. Clocking in at a tidy 90 minutes, the movie never mistakes itself for high art, and that gives it an underdog charm.
"Birthday Girl" won't make any year-end "best of" lists, but it's certainly a diverting evening's entertainment, and if you're a Nicole Kidman fan, you'll likely get a few grins out of it.
(Rated R for nudity, violence, language.)
THREE stars of four
The right actor can liven up even the worst of scripts. I could easily listen to the great Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman reading selections from "People" magazine, for example. Now, a great actor isn't going to make gold out of garbage, but they can at least make it tolerable.
So it goes with Nicole Kidman's "Birthday Girl," a featherweight but fitfully enjoyable romantic comedy/thriller. Filmed back in 1999, this movie was only theatrically released briefly earlier this year to capitalize on Kidman's "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others" success. As a result, it's got a cozy, independent film feel unlike either of those more polished blockbusters.
Ben Chapin plays John Buckingham, a blank-faced, dull British bank teller whose lonely desperation leads him to order a Russian girlfriend over the Internet. What arrives is Nadia (Kidman), a pale, mascara-smeared, gypsy-like vision who, despite the Internet company's promises, doesn't speak English and isn't quite the perfect wife Buckingham hoped for. Yet despite their differences, the two find a kinky kind of common ground in the bedroom. Unfortunately, love doesn't quite rule the day when several of Kidman's Russian countrymen barge into Buckingham's life, setting in motion a series of scams, abductions and double-crossings.
Kidman's spicy, kittenish performance makes this movie hum along at a brisk pace; it's as different from her "Moulin Rouge" performance as her "The Others" role was from that one. Her Russian language scenes, to my admittedly untrained ears, sounded quite natural. Nadia's character changes several times in the course of "Birthday Girl," and Kidman makes us buy it all. Chapin ("The Thin Red Line") is an able match, embodying the repressed British dweeb stereotype.
Still, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense. A bank heist seems a little too casual to be believable, even in small-town Britain, and lighthearted scenes dealing with airline security, post-9/11, are awkward to watch. If you get caught up enough in the banter between Kidman and Chapin, though, it doesn't seem that important. Clocking in at a tidy 90 minutes, the movie never mistakes itself for high art, and that gives it an underdog charm.
"Birthday Girl" won't make any year-end "best of" lists, but it's certainly a diverting evening's entertainment, and if you're a Nicole Kidman fan, you'll likely get a few grins out of it.
(Rated R for nudity, violence, language.)
THREE stars of four
