Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz
Director: Jez Butterworth
Producers: Eric Abraham, Steve Butterworth, Diana Phillips
Screenplay: Jez Butterworth, Tom Butterworth
Cinematography: Oliver Stapleton
Music: Stephen Warbeck
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Her personal life may be in trouble, but, professionally, Nicole Kidman has never been hotter. With a pair of high-profile 2001 features (Moulin Rouge, The Others) on her resume, Kidman has stepped out of the shadow of her ex-husband and let the spotlight shine directly on her flaming red tresses. Kidman had already made Birthday Girl when her star began its spectacular ascent, but the wily marketing folks at Miramax Films waited for it to reach its zenith before capitalizing on it. So, as the Kidman-for-Oscar-nominee buzz starts, the rather lackluster sophomore feature of Jez Butterworth rolls into theaters. The romantic comedy doesn't have much, but it has Kidman.
Birthday Girl stars sad-eyed Ben Chaplin as John, a lonely bank clerk who yearns for female companionship, but can't find the right woman. What's a '00s guy to do? Go to the Internet, of course. On a site called "From Russia with Love", he finds his ideal mate - Nadia (Kidman), who's smart, pretty, and speaks perfect English. However, when he picks her up at the airport, he discovers that her online bio isn't 100% accurate - she can't speak a word of John's language. After a rocky beginning, things improve. The couple still can't communicate verbally, but Nadia discovers some porn magazines John has hidden in his house, and accommodates a few of his kinky fantasies. But the bliss only lasts until the arrival of Nadia's cousins (Vincent Cassel and Matthieu Kassovitz), who quickly turn John's life upside down once he learns that the con is on.
Birthday Girl tries (thankfully) to be a little more ambitious than the average romantic comedy, but, for the most part the thriller/caper aspects are less than impressive and not terribly interesting. The romantic interludes, despite being a little bland, are more compelling that the scenes featuring Cassel and Kassovitz (the director of the French film Hate, which starred Cassel). Chaplin and Kidman are fine in their own right, but they don't strike many sparks. Anyone expecting the romantic froth of Moulin Rouge or the low-key geniality of The Truth about Cats and Dogs will be disappointed.
I suppose the core problem with Birthday Girl is that, although it doesn't do anything radically wrong, it doesn't do anything radically right, either. It has some humor, some action, and some romance, but not enough of any of those elements to really spark an audience's interest. On top of that, the disparate aspects are not interwoven seamlessly. The tone is uneven, veering from near camp to stark cruelty. Birthday Girl is passable entertainment, but it's the kind of motion picture that won't make much of a splash when it's released, and will not be remembered long afterwards.
© 2002 James Berardinelli