Year:
2001
Studio:
Miramax Films/FilmFour
Feature:
4/5
DVD:
2/5
Birthday Girl is a
British film that probably should only get three stars except for this
concept: Nicole Kidman playing a Russian mail-order bride who is
willing to do bondage. Nothing graphic mind you but damn, that's an
erotic image.
John (Ben Chaplin) is a bank teller living and working near London.
Boring sort of guy. Shy. Quite desperate for love. Desperate enough to
send for a mail-order bride out of a Russian web site. And in comes
Nadia (Nicole Kidman). Young, beautiful, a little trampy, doesn't speak
a lick of english. At first John wants to send her back because he
can't even talk to her. But the sex brings him around right quickly.
Everything is going along fine until Nadia's birthday. Then John's
world takes an interesting twist when Nadia's good friend Yuri (Mathieu
Kassovitz) and Yuri's somewhat psychotic friend Alexei (Vincent Cassel)
arrive. They get to know John, Nadia seems happier. Until Alexei goes
berserk and threatens to kill Nadia.
What is John to do? He sneaks into the bank and steals a lot of money.
And then it turns out that it was all a scam. The three Russians have
been bilking lonely bank employees all over Europe. John is devastated.
Nadia is feeling somewhat guilty and for some reason her two friends
tie her up and leave her.
|
Now John and
Nadia are on the run from the law. And the first thing John learns is
that Nadia speaks english, with an accent. This makes it a lot easier
for them to talk and get to know each other. John is going to turn her
in to the police but then he finds out she's pregnant so he has a
change of heart.
And they talk. And Nadia finds out that he John loves her (actually we
can only assume because she finds a note in Russian that John wrote to
her). And Nadia is not even her real name but she won't tell John her
name. And she finds out about his previous love and he finds out a bit
about her life.
They go to the airport so Nadia can leave the country. The two Russian
friends catch up to Nadia. John follows them to their hotel. Hidden he
sees that Nadia is no longer part of the trio. In fact, it looks like
she's looking for the money they stole, perhaps to return it to John.
John breaks in and frees Nadia.
They go back to the airport. John wants Nadia to have the money so she
can take of her baby. She invites him to Russia. He accepts. She tells
him her name is Sophia. The End.
When it's all said and done, it's a nice romantic ending. You're
rooting for John, you're rooting for Nadia, you're rooting for them to
fall in love. And although it's not love at the end, it's a start. A
new beginning for them both. The movie left me feeling better about
life.
The DVD includes a 6-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and a music
video of a classic song, "Something Stupid", performed and sung by
Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.
|