DVD Review: Birth

There's a great scene in Birth where Nicole Kidman's character Anna is sitting at a symphony and director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) just keeps the camera on her, letting the audience watch Anna's eyes as she tries to process the ridiculous notion that a 10 year-old boy is the reincarnation of her dead husband. It's a powerful moment in a film that contains layers upon layers of odd metaphysical goings-on. It's just one example of where Glazer and his screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière succeed in evoking the emotional slow burn that Kubrick did so brilliantly. Another aspect I liked about the film is that it didn't feel the need to talk these complicated themes to death. Instead Glazer's film is more an adult fairy tale about endless love with a heartbreakingly ironic coda. The use of a French screen writer and a French composer, Alexandre Desplat, proves that Glazer wanted to make an adult, French-like film – with its long takes of beneath-the-surface action and talky scenes – that teeters on the sexually absurd. The musical score is one of the highlights as the action always moves effortlessly (thanks to the fine editing) with the music. The film looks amazing, too, as DP Harris Savides (Zodiac) paints the film in drab, muted colors and sometimes appropriately drenches his characters in shadows.

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