Rating: 
Summary: Strange story but well told
Review: Whatever may be wrong with this film (and there are things that just simply don't work, including the somewhat claustrophbic camera work) the end result is a tantalizingly strange tale with very strong acting on the parts of Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin. Kidman may be close to Meryl Streep in her ability to absorb dialects, other languages, and accents. It is refreshing to see actors of this caliber take on a film that they probably knew wasn't going to be a box office hit, but just wanted the challenge of the script, the director, and the roles. Worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Birthday Girl: Gift Wrapping of a Second Rate Gift
Review: BIRTHDAY GIRL is the kind of movie that promises to be a light hearted romantic comedy of two dissimilar people meeting and somehow falling in love. For the first third of the movie, director Jez Butterworth delivers. John (Ben Chaplin) is a mild-mannered bank clerk who tires of not having the right woman so he goes on the Internet to find a mail-order bride. Putting aside the internal logical and legal flaw that requires one to actually meet a Russian woman before sending away for her as if she were a fine English pipe, John meets Nadia (Nicole Kidman) at the airport and fully expects the English-speaking beauty that he was led to think was coming. Nadia and John spend several delightful scenes together as the cultural and linguistic differences first trip, then attract them. Beginning in the middle, Butterworth leads BIRTHDAY GIRL seriously astray as he switches tonal gears from the light world of romance to the gritty edge of fraud and violence. Two of Nadia's 'cousins' enter unannounced to complicate John's sedate life with what is frankly an unbelievable tale of kidnapping and bank fraud. As John obeyed the commands of these two Russians to steal money, I was left gasping at his naivete in not informing the authorities. What follows the bank robbery is your standard thriller between a decent but wimpy clerk and two vicious Russian criminals. The ending, which I shall not reveal here, left me raging at the overly forgiving attitude of a schnook whose schnookness was rubbed in his face by a scheming woman who has the audacity to continue to ask for help even after her true intentions are made known. Still, BIRTHDAY GIRL succeeds in engaging the attention of the viewer even after the closing credits. What lies at the heart of BIRTHDAY GIRL is a subtle, if misplaced call to address the issues of loneliness that can reach across far-flung borders that sometimes can result in two people eventually seeing eye to eye.
Rating: 
Summary: Happy Brithday? Oh yeah.
Review: Birthday Girl was a great movie. I rented it after reading some reviews here and I expected it to be terrible. Though I am a huge Nicole Kidman fan so I HAD to watch it and see how it turned out. It was fantastic. There were two things I think would have been nice though. One is some extra feature or hidden bonus feature that unlocks the Russian scenes so you get subtitles and see all of what they are saying instead of just finding out what the say later in the movie. I would also like to know whether this was a dark comedy, romantic comedy, sex comedy or thriller. My opinion? Dark comedy/romantic comedy with a few hints of borderline thriller/crime movie. Totally awesome. See this movie.You'll be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: This Is One Birthday I Won't Be Celebrating
Review: Birthday Girl is one of the worst movies I have seen. The acting is okay but it's really annoying that they speak more Russian than English in the movie. The storyline is so dumb and not well thought out.Birthday Girl is about a lonly bank employee who orders a Russian mail-order bride. When he first meets her, he realizes she isn't exactly what he wanted. Her name is Nadia and she doesn't really speak English. The story goes on and on and on into neverland. This movie is not worth the rent or the buy. Shame on Nicole Kidman.
Rating: 
Summary: Kidman and Chaplin have a field day in black comedy
Review: In the summer of 2001, Nicole Kidman's career was redefined by the release of two critically acclaimed movies, "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others". She went from well known actress to super star. What made her victory even sweeter was that the two roles were complete opposites of each other. "Birthday Girl" was released after these two success but was actually filmed before them. This small, independent British film, though a minor league entry, is an interesting and quirky black comedy that further showcases her talents. John [Ben Chaplin] has worked in a bank for ten years. The job pays enough for him to afford a nice little house. He's dependable, thoughtful and predictable. In other words, he has no life. He secretly knows this and decides to shake up his life dramatically by picking out a Russian bride via the Internet. Her name is Nadia [Kidman], and she is false advertising personified. The ad claims she is a non-smoker fluent in English. She turns out to be a chain smoker whose command of our language is limited to "Yes" and "No". John desperately tries to reach the Internet company to find out how to ship her back. Meanwhile, Nadia discovers what turns John on. They discover the age-old universal language. Things begin to improve until two of Nadia's friends from Russia casually drop in. John learns his bride is full of surprises, most of them unpleasant. His dull, simple life is over and an exceedingly complicated and dangerous one replaces it. Though it has flair and a touch of originality, there isn't a whole lot to "Birthday Girl". It's a diversion, and a dark one at that. There are a lot of funny scenes, but others are quite serious, as well as somewhat violent. Director Jez Butterworth, who also co-wrote the screenplay, manages this mix fairly well, but the shifts in tone will not appeal to some viewers. The main reasons to watch the movie are Kidman and her droll co-star, Chaplin, who himself needs just one lucky movie role to make him a star.
Rating:
Summary: Birthday Girl
Review: See it. You will like it. Short, a little slow, but ultimately rewarding. Like every birthday.
Rating:
Summary: Good Actors, Weak Plot
Review: I'll first say that I thought that Nicole Kidman had an excellent Russian accent. It was interesting to see her sort of de-glamourized and looking darker and almost slutty (but she didn't really look Russian either). And Ben Chaplin was good, as were the other actors. But the plot of this movie is generally weak and sort of seemed like one of those movies that you've already seen before at some point. It's all about this lonely introverted English guy who orders a mail order bride from Russia and then she turns out to be quite different than she appears. All the acting was good but the plot seemed very forced and unrealistic at points, like it was trying to be either gritty or artistic and not really convincing at either mode. I guess in a way, this was like "Pretty Woman Gone Bad." For some reason, this movie reminded me of The Center of the World, another good but flawed movie. But The Center of the World had a much darker ending which seemed more realistic to me. If you are a Nicole Kidman fan, you'll probably rush out and rent this, otherwise, you might just wait until it shows up on cable.
Rating:
Summary: Nicole Kidman at her worst
Review: Birthday girl isn't much worth the effort. To be honest, the only redeeming value of the movie is a few partially nude scenes by Nicole (not really a selling point, even though she is a very attractive lady). The story follows a British bank clerk who can't seem to meet women in England, so he orders what he thinks is a Russian mail-order bride. It's a scam; when her real boyfriend and another Russian show up in tow and start threatening Nicole and the Brit, it all becomes apparent that it's just an attempt to get the Brit to rob his own bank for them. ...P>The Brit in this movie tries to be Hugh Grant, with the subtle, self-depracating humor, but he definitely lacks Hugh Grant's charm. Frankly, I never could understand why his new bride ever does fall for him. He also leads a sad existence, which becomes even sadder when the mail-order bride shows up, and that's even before the hired muscle also arives to shake things up. And he's blind as a bat -- he apparently ordered the bride because he couldn't seem to meet decent women in the circles he runs in, but in a few scenes at the bank there is a woman who obviously fancies him (although nothing is really ever done with her in that vein). The other two guys that round out the cast, typical gangster types. Nothing exciting. When I first saw this movie in the theater, it was being pushed as if it were some sort of light British comedy (ala Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral), with a little thriller thrown in. Now the video is being pushed as a complete thriller. It's neither funny or thrilling. It's mostly just depressing.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and short birthday
Review: Nicole Kidman and his couple(In the film)Ben Chaplin are the best of the movie.
With a simple but interesting plot, and excellent(Very excellents)actings.
But thing gets boring and predictable here, and not evem the beautiful touchs of comedy here can entertein us.
A real big shame, poor Nicole.
Rating:
Summary: An Electrifying and Romantic Black Comedy.
Review: The idea of a mail-order bride is something that a surprising amount of men consider at one point or another. How many of those men actually act on it is a different story. Whatever the case may be, director Jez Butterworth's new film, "Birthday Girl", explores the possibilities of everything that could go wrong with a bride that one has to pay for. It's been said before, and it will be said again: Crossing genre lines can be an extremely risky undertaking, with the results often ending up disastrous. That is not the case with "Birthday Girl", which carefully treads the border between lighthearted romantic comedy and dark crime drama. The transition from one to the other is rather steep, but it makes itself work due to the amazing script by Jez and Tom Butterworth. The brothers balance every part of their film to prevent any one aspect from becoming too overpowering. When it seems like the "dark side" is taking over, they kick in a little notch of sly comedy or some playful banter between the two leads. The first twenty minutes of the film is the romance section. It's cute at times, and, at other times, very sensual. The romance here is very believable, despite the farfetched conditions that led up to it. When the thriller part takes over, the picture just continues to shine, allowing more room for the main characters to gain some depth. Ben Chaplin gives a decent performance, but he is sort of passive to begin with anyway. It's actually quite hard to pinpoint specific emotions that he portrays throughout the film because he almost always looks the same. It's not a terrible performance by any means, but it in no way compares to that of Nicole Kidman. Nic is perfection. She brings an incredibly human quality to a character that would have otherwise been cursory. Kidman's Nadia is an exotic kitten - mischievous, deceiving, and .... She is a truly awesome actress. "Birthday Girl" is the first great film of 2002. It's a mesmerizing and seductive masterpiece that works impeccably as both a romantic comedy and a thriller. Throw in Nic Kidman, and, pretty soon, people are going to start saying, "She was married to Tom WHO?"
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