I'm sure you've probably heard of Mary Kay Letourneau, the thirty-four-year-old school teacher who took her 13-year-old student as her lover, had a child with him, spent some time in prison and plans on marrying the now 21-year-old. Beyond violating the student/teacher relationship and the overall pedophile issue, what disturbed most people was that the perpetrator was a woman rather than the usual man in such instances.
That very issue is explored in "Birth," the follow-up from director Jonathan Glazer who made a big splash with Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone in "Sexy Beast." The story isn't about Letourneau per se, but rather a woman -- played by Nicole Kidman sporting a cropped and pixyish doo -- who's confronted by a 10-year-old boy - Cameron Bright doing his best, creepy kid bit -- who claims to be her husband who died ten years earlier.
She doesn't believe him, but since she never got over the adult Sean and the fact that the kid (also named Sean) knows intimate details about their past leads her to believe, however unlikely, that she's experiencing a bout of reincarnation. The problem -- among a myriad that plague this overly pretentious film from start to finish -- is that Glazer and co-screenwriters Jean-Claude Carrière ("Belle de Jour," "The Tin Drum") and Milo Addica ("Monster's Ball") never seem to make up their minds about the exact cause and/or explanation behind the boy's decidedly unusual behavior.
Is he truly reincarnated, is he possessed or has someone put him up to such psychologically cruel mischief? All are plausible, but while the first gets the most play, the filmmakers don't stick with their guns and instead leave everything open to interpretation, especially with a cop-out ending.
An equally troubling problem is that many of the pivotal characters don't act in believable or credible ways. If the boy truly is the former husband, why doesn't he just come out with his proof rather than hold it back? The answer, of course, is because we then wouldn't have much of a movie as what's present is already stretched pretty much to the limit and then some.
In conjunction with the first issue, the boy is so ill-defined that it's maddening. He claims to be the husband but isn't happy to see Anna after ten years, and he states to his mother that he's no longer her dumb kid anymore, yet he then goes to school the next day. The nebulous genesis behind him obviously lends itself to such a nebulous performance, and Bright ("Godsend," "The Butterfly Effect") has to play a dead serious adult -- or facsimile thereof -- in a kid's body. Even so, the solemn and nearly possessed performance is all wrong.
Even worse is the character played by Kidman ("The Stepford Wives," "Cold Mountain") who get this year's "what were they thinking" award. I understand that her love for her husband didn't die with him and get the theme that love doesn't have to fit into the usual cultural or societal boundaries we typically see or expect. Yet, and beyond that underlying motif, there's no good explanation behind her behavior.
Notwithstanding the creepy pedophile issue (that involves seeing the boy stripping down to his underwear and then birthday suit to share a bare with the already nude Kidman, and a brief discussion over his ability, willingness or knowledge about fulfilling her "needs"), there's the fact that she'd likely assume either she or the boy had slipped a mental cog or two. Had a trip to the psychiatrist been inserted or some examples of her unconditional love for her husband (before his death) been present, some of what's offered may have been a tiny bit easier to buy.
Alas, none of it is and that's a huge problem that's only exacerbated by Glazer's glacial pacing. The opening scene -- the only one featuring Anna's husband as he jogs through what seems like all of Central Park, twice, before keeling over dead -- goes on forever. Other scenes are similarly and unnecessarily lengthy, slow and redundant, while various characters act as if they're in a dreamy (or nightmarish) daze where reality has taken a holiday. That would be fine if the film was of the spooky or fantasy genre, but it isn't.
I understand what the filmmakers are attempting to achieve -- a moody, poignant and ultimately heartbreaking film about eternal love somewhere along the lines of what Stanley Kubrick might have offered (think of the style and pacing of "Eyes Wide Shut" and you'll get an idea of a more effective example of such an offering). Unfortunately, what's delivered is a ludicrous, slow and increasingly laughable exercise in pretentious filmmaking. Yes, it all comes in a pretty package thanks to the effort from cinematographer Harris Savides ("Elephant," "The Game"), but the only thing inside is a broken offering.
One of the bigger questions about the film, however, is how Glazer and company convinced a decent cast to agree to appear in this mess. Perhaps the likes of Lauren Bacall ("Dogville," "The Mirror Has Two Faces"), Peter Stormare ("Minority Report," "Fargo"), Anne Heche ("John Q," "Six Days Seven Nights") and Danny Huston ("Silver City," "21 Grams") didn't read the entire script or liked that the director got Kingsley an Oscar nomination for his work in "Sexy Beast" and thought maybe they could score one as well. I wouldn't be placing any wagers on that if I were you.
Had the plot jettisoned the kid angle in favor of an adult with a similar claim (or even an adult woman if they wanted to keep in line with their notion of true love challenging traditional boundaries), the film might have worked. It certainly would have added some depth and additional plot opportunities to the proceedings while eliminating the disturbing pedophile element that does nothing for the film other than serve as a distraction.
If you want to see a stellar film about reincarnation and love surviving death, check out the 1978 version of "Heaven Can Wait." Despite some good genes that went into its creation, this "Birth" comes off as the ugly cinematic stepsister who doesn't grow up into anything worthwhile. The film rates as a 2.5 out of 10.
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