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Birthday Girl
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0717951010865
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Miramax
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Manufacturer: Miramax
MPN: D20915D
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 13, 2002
Running Time: 90 minutes
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: February 01, 2002
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Editorial Review:
If Birthday Girl is a far-fetched thriller, it's also a slice of absurdist fun populated by some awfully interesting actors. Nicole Kidman plays Sophia, a chain-smoking, mascara-smudged, wildly sexual mail-order bride from Russia who answers an Internet plea for companionship from a lonely British bank employee, John (Ben Chaplin). For a while, the two make a startling and intriguing pair: she apparently speaks no English and he naively frets over the veracity of the Web business that brought them together. The gorgeous Kidman and sad-eyed Chaplin are briefly the engine of their own unique movie, but then the other shoe drops. Sophia, obviously up to something mysterious, is paid a visit on her birthday by two Russian "cousins" (French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz and one of his own frequent stars, Vincent Cassel, also seen in Brotherhood of the Wolf). Suddenly, John's quest for a lover becomes a web of deceit and corruption. Directed and cowritten (with his brother Tom) by Jez Butterworth, Birthday Girl is hampered a bit by sluggishness and insufficient character development. But it is also original and strikingly entertaining. Tom Keogh
The irresistible Nicole Kidman (MOULIN ROUGE, THE OTHERS) powers a sexy thriller where appearances can be deceiving and nothing ends as expected! A lonely and repressed bank employee, John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin, THE THIN RED LINE) desperately wants to meet the right girl. Then, through a Russian mail-order bride service, he is introduced to Nadia (Kidman), a quiet and attractive woman who doesn't speak English. After several sensual encounters, John's fondness for Nadia grows ... until the sudden arrival of Nadia's two gregarious cousins makes John realize that he's in over his head. Acclaimed by critics everywhere, this unpredictably entertaining hit will keep you guessing as it keeps you on the edge of your seat!
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Western promises
In many ways this black comedy is Nicole Kidman's best movie. She is just wonderful as Nadia, a Russian mail order girlfriend ordered up by Ben Chapin, a very quiet, but controlling English bank clerk. Nicole dresses like a hooker, smokes like a chimney, can't speak a word of English but understands why he has brought her to England. She is sexually aggressive and quickly finds out Ben's character's pervey taste in sex.
Things come to a head on Nadia's birthday when Vincent Cassell ... Read More
Rating:  - Extremely Awkward
This movie was really awkward throughout. I don't know what else to say about it as the premise is obvious. It's not really extremely thrilling, but more like I said an extremely awkward movie. No one got killed really but, you'll want to avert you're eyes often during this movie, at the awkward mail order relationship.
Rating: - Amazing actors can't save this train wreck.
Birthday Girl starring Ben Chaplin and Nicole Kidman starts off as an appealing, strange love story but the film loses its edge 30 minutes in. Kidman is superb as always and Chaplin always gives a quiet, realistic perfomance but even their apparent talents can't spark a weak story. I could see the twist coming a mile away and there's nothing else worth talking about. Birthday Girl is anything but a blaze of glory. Skip it.
Rating: - Funnily absurd though maybe wise
A small funny film. It is totally incredible, unbelievable, impossible. But it is funny how an introverted masochist can become totally dependent and mesmerized, even hypnotized by a girl he hardly knows but who was able to get down into his phantasms. Of course it is a denunciation of the foolish deals you can get to on the Internet. You must not believe ten percent of what you're told there and never, ever, ever accept to tie up your hands in a way or another to someone or something or some organization ... Read More
Rating: - Mediocre
Even with Nicole Kidman starring in this movie, it was not her best film. I found the story a bit ridiculous. It seemed to be a low-budget film as well. Pass up on this one.
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