Date Released: 02/01/2002
Rated: R (for sadomasochistic themes and some other intense sexuality, strong language/profanity, violence)
Film Length: 93 Minutes
Produced by: Eric Abraham, Steve Butterworth, Diana Phillips
Directed by: Jez Butterworth
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Valentina Cervi
Distributor: Miramax Films
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Director/co-writer Jez Butterworth's "Birthday Girl" is geared toward being a quirky, fast-paced provocative British romantic thriller. However, this half-baked crime caper comes off as an awkward, unevenly edgy black comedy that features the typical plot contrivances and flaky convoluted characters in excitable, ridiculous situations. Butterworth ("Mojo") seems content to pour on what amounts to be the predictable intriguing antics of a plotline that is as noticable as a Siberian yak trudging in the snow. Watching "Birthday Girl" is somewhat of a strain since this overreaching thriller wants to attack your funnybones and dabble in the real estate of Lust Land. But Butterworth's rambling direction and the movie's schizophrenic script leaves "Birthday Girl" as nothing more than a routine and farfetching vehicle that swings so aimlessly in the arena of brutality and banality. Some may appreciate the sadomasochistic sauciness as a twist of offbeat gratification, but the thought of the film's star Nicole Kidman spread out nude and tied like a hog ready for its Sunday slaughtering feels so desperately sensationalistic and dispiriting.
Lonely and boring banker John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin from "The Thin Red Line" and "The Truth About Cats & Dogs") is searching for love and needs that special someone to complete his hohum existence. So John immediately looks to go online on the Internet and orders his companionship instead of dealing with the coventional way of securing a relationship through the rigors of the traditional dating ritual. When the Russian chain-smoking Nadia (Kidman) arrives, John is smitten by her attractiveness at first. But then Nadia starts to show some signs of bizarre behavior that suggests John should reevalulate his decision to hold onto this non-English speaking online honeybun. Nadia is strange to say the least, and neurotic John just isn't in the mood to deal with her erratic idiosyncracies.
John comes to the conclusion that the borscht beauty has to be sent packing but Nadia resists and tells her clueless suitor (via a Russian and English dictionary) that it's her birthday and to send her back to Russia would upset her special day. Feeling inadequate about do so, John holds up and changes his mind in not sending the mysterious Nadia away. And it also helped that Nadia agreed to satisfy John's unresolved sexual needs--something the meek and unsatisfied John couldn't possibly turn down. If Nadia is going to act wild and uncontrollable, it might as well be in the comforts of his bedroom.
Now with Nadia solidly cemented in John's good graces, she is giving a birthday party to celebrate. Out of the blue, two of her "cousins" pop up out of nowhere. Verbose Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz from "Amelie") and the unctuous Alexi (Vicent Cassel from "The Brotherhood of the Wolf") talk their way into staying with John in his flat. Since their so-called kinship to his precious pop tart Nadia is defined in his mind, John sees no harm in allowing these shady characters to stay at his place despite his looming skeptism. Inevitably, this invitation involving these Russian rogues along with John's attachment to the tasty cutie pie Nadia results in a disasterous series of occurences that the bewildered bank employee will ultimately live to regret.
"Birthday Girl", with all its rough-around-the-edges satire, dissolves into a corrosively cockeyed dramedy that titillates in uninspired fashion. The violence factor in the film is inconsistent with the tone of the plotline. On one hand, the movie waters down some of the objectionable scenes with loose-ended ribaldry that's meant to give off this flighty, rollicking hedonism. Then in other instances, the raucousness becomes palpably uneasy (such as the scene where Nadia is threatened with scorching water). The see saw concerning the misguided intrigue and the aimless insanity is never convincingly balanced and we never appreciate the mockery of the wild events taking place. The outrageousness is blatantly labored as the film tries cleverly to be this irreverent and seductive showcase.
Overall, the outlandish proceedings fall as flat as a Russian blini. Leads Kidman and Chaplin aren't on the same page as far as their erotic and carefree union are concerned. Although Kidman has a great time playing this skin-revealing, free-wheeling flusie with touted playfulness, her bland leading man Chaplin doesn't completely rise to the occasion as the confused cad along for a mischievous ride of sexual and psychological chaos. Chaplin's mismatched indifference and Kidman's naughty exuberance was supposed to highlight this obvious contrast in personalities that would expose them as an unlikely, exotic duo. But both stars cancel each other out like a badly written check. Their chemistry is all wrong and the encounter with all the zany stuff that invade their kooky world is strenuously slight and sluggish.
"Birthday Girl" unwraps its package alright, but the contents inside only reinforce what a psuedo-stylish actioner Butterworth's thrilling cinematic gift really is.
Frank rates this film: ** stars (out of 4 stars)