Rating: 
Summary: A criminally overlooked challenging film
Review: Birthday Girl might be the best movie ever to have receive such mediocre reviews by film-critics . Having been delayed to come out at theatres for more than a year , the film was poorly promoted which resulted in almost zero box office profits . The story about a moderate , calm banker who deceides to order a bride via internet is sharp , smart and full of black humour . The biggest plus of Birthday Girl is it's sly , witty script and it's terrific lead-actors . Kidman is particularly convincing as the slick , russian bride who has secrets of her own yet extra credit should be given to Ben Chaplin for creating such a naive , loveable central hero . He's an actor brave enough to chose to play a role so different from the hunky mr.perfects which you see on most romantic films of today . Even though his hero's character is languid , he makes him seem so great on screen by marking out his perplexity in tough situations and his weak humane side . Birthday Girl is a well-made romantic thriller with a little bit more sex , violence and brains than usual . Be wise and pick this one up right away .
Rating: 
Summary: Title character believable con artist, not believable lover
Review: (PARTIAL SPOILERS)
A lonely Englishman sends off for a Russian mail-order bride. The bride is played by an unlikely Nicole Kidman, the Hawaiian-born actress generally assumed to be Australian. She's said to have spoken no Russian before making this movie. Those who know more Russian than I have said her Russian is remarkable for one who just started speaking it, as is that of other cast members who similarly spoke it for the first time in learning their movie lines herein. That may be the most remarkable thing about this movie. If it were all that remarkable, it might deserve five stars, but it is rather flawed in fact. At first it's a fairly tense drama. The new groom is expecting a bride who speaks English, but soon finds she apparently can't. More surprises follow. She brings two "cousins" into his life, and he soon finds that all three of these Russians are setting him up to participate in a bank robbery. That much of the movie is decently crafted, for whatever the story is worth. But an attempt to tack on a real romance to that plot is purely ad hoc. The bride is as much a participant in the robbery as her "cousins", so why should she get a pass and be considered reformed to go on and make a satisfactory wife? No reasonable attempt is made to show her reforming; were just expected to accept an essentially happily-ever-after type ending to this crime drama incongrously turned romance. You'd think the makers thought the part most deserving their fine-tuned efforts was the irony of a Hawaiian-born "Australian" who previously spoke no Russian playing a Russian who can speak English but pretends not to.
Rating:
Summary: Nicole Kidman OUTSTANDING!!!!!!! 5 star performance!*****
Review: First of all, I am a huge Nicole Kidman fan - and, needless to say, viewing this film makes me love her that much more! She is such a great actress and her portrayal of a Russian bride is extraordinary! This is a must see!!! I do agree with the other commentators about this film not exactly being "movie of the year", but there is no mistaking the entertainment this film provides!
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable!
Review: Our protagonist, John, sends off for an e-mail order Russian bride. He doesn't get exactly what he bargained for. Nadia speaks no English and has a barely suppressed feral look about her. The sex, however, is great and they forge a bond based on this alone. Soon, Nadia is celebrating her birthday and two "cousins" come to help celebrate. John finds himself way over his head in the middle of an increasingly out of control situation reminiscent of "Something Wild". I'm not always too crazy about Nicole Kidman, but thought she did a fantastic job in this movie. Everyone did. I totally believed that an Australian woman and two French guys were Russian. This wasn't a blockbuster, but a really entertaining movie with plenty of twists and turns to keep the viewer engrossed.
Rating:
Summary: Stop Whining.....
Review: OK,
"Birthday Girl" is not supposed to be a "Blow your mind" psych thriller. Or anything of a phenomenal calliber... It is just a movie that is good. It's enjoyable and it is filmed and acted well. Nicole Kidman is coming up strong in her acting ability and is an incredible actor.. Birthday Girl is a very enjoyable and good movie. It's cool. So stop bitching that it wasn't what it was suposed to be.. Because really what was it "supposed" to be? other than just a good movie? it's not shakespeare but it's still agood flick...
Rating: 
Summary: A Quirky Comedy
Review: The movie's plot is predictable with some on the edge violence. I liked the film because of Nicole Kidman. I think she played the Russian femme fatale really well. I like the way she acts and comes across on film. It seems she has so many different sides to her acting styles, I like that. It had to be a task to learn how to speak the Russian dialouge, unless she already spoke it before the movie. Her fashion is very different and her hairstyle and make-up looks Russian to me. The clothes did not look Russian but they were very stylish and colorful. The characterizations were not fully developed so I did not fully know the characters except at face value. What I mean is that their past did not become clear, what motivates them for example. Why did male lead want a net bride, I knew he was rigid, uptight, not really very creative, but still, maybe it was less scary for him to meet someone over the net, I'm not to sure. Why did Nadia stay with such a jerk, why did she want to stay with the male lead, did she love him? did she feel sorry for him? Nothing was really provided in depth, so that is one reason I did not give it more stars. Another reason is because the story line is slim. I can't believe a bank would not question an employee's bringing two empty guitar cases in to work. It just didn't have the greatest story to it. But it could be worth it to see the movie if you are a fan of Nicole's, she does take on a sad fragile performance for alot of the film, which is different from more stronger female roles...
Rating:
Summary: A nice blend of drama and comedy.
Review: I have to say firstly, that I'm not a huge Nicole Kidman fan. But upon seeing the film, I thought she did a fantastic job. The main reason I went to see the film, is because I'm a huge fan of French director Matthieu Kassovitz, and one of his acting regulars, Vincent Cassell. These two fellas did a superb job as the Russian goon types. In my eyes, either one can do no wrong. (You might recognize Kassovitz from Amelie and a cameo in Besson's The Fifth Element as well as his own Cafe au Lait; Cassel has starred in La Haine and The Crimson Rivers) The trailer does give a lot of the story away, but even though parts are predictable, it is an enjoyable film. Nice footage of the British countryside. So [...] go see the film and enjoy yourself. And go see Kassovitz's old films as well.
Rating:
Summary: From Russia W/O Love
Review: Nicole Kidman, who is definitely on a roll after her successes in "The Others" and "Moulin Rouge," stars as a Russian mail order bride Nadia, procured online by a meek bank teller John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin)in Jez Butterworth's "Birthday Girl."
And like most things in life that appear too good to be true...this arrangement also comes with two Russian crooks and friends of Nadia (really Sofia),Alexi (Matthieu Kassovitz) and Yuri (Vincent Cassel)who prove that the old adage is alive and well in St Albans, England.
The first half of the movie is like a fairy tale with Nadia and John developing a relationship based on bondage mostly...but hey this is 2002, afterall. This part of the film reminds me of "The Play Misty for Me" scenes set to the song "The First Time ever I saw your face," as well as the scenes between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids set to "Raindrops keep falling on my Head." It's a time honored technique to quickly set a mood or to speed through necessary exposition. And it works here as it does elsewhere; for after the first half, Nadia and John seem to have developed something akin to love.
Then Alexi and Yuri arrive. And what we thought would be a pleasant romantic light comedy becomes a caper film, though John is definitely an unwilling participant in this part of the film.
It's a difficult thing to blend adventure, comedy, larceny and excitement into a cohesive whole and Butterworth does not wholly succeed though Nicole Kidman is very charming as the Mata-Hari-like femme fatale and Ben Chaplin is charmingly meek, sympathetic and needy while Matthieu Kassovitz (so good in "Amelie") and Vincent Cassel are appropriately menacing and a bit crazy.
Rating:
Summary: Happy "Birthday?" Maybe next year.
Review: Part drama, part thriller, part comedy, "Birthday Girl" offers little in the way of laughs or suspense, while at the same time moving its characters from one crazy machination to the next without giving us much of a reason to care where they go, what they do, or if they end up together when it all comes to an end. The light at the end of the tunnel comes from Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin, their performances making an otherwise ludicrous film watchable. Chaplin stars as John, a lonely Englishman who busies himself searching a Russian mail-order bride website for his perfect match. Herein lies the movie's primary (and continuous) mistake: why does he feel the need to send for someone he knows nothing about, save for an intro video from the internet? At one point, we hear John in a narration likening his tactics to an everyday first acquaintance in the supermarket, a shoddy attempt at the hands of the writer to mask the lack of characterization. A slight glimmer of hope arrives with Nadia (Kidman), a very kittenish Russian woman who chain-smokes and whose knowledge of the English language consists of the word "yes." At first, John sees her as a mistake, but later he comes home one afternoon to find her going through his private collection of bondage magazines, and it's off to bed for the two strangers. The story hook (if you can classify it as such) comes when two men claiming to have a past friendship with Nadia show up at John's doorstep on the day of her birthday. Agreeing to let them stay, John soon finds himself in awkward situations, leading him to formally dismiss them from his home. The next day, one of them goes mad, threatens Nadia's life, forcing John to walk into his bank and steal a large sum of money before they all leave town in his run-down car. Of course (surprise, surprise), Nadia is not really her name, and she's affiliated with the two strange men, working with them in scamming various men in an identical fashion, all occurring on her birthday (or maybe even that's a lie they use on each victim). As if this were a grand revelation (not only is it predictable, but the movie's preview trailer leaves little hidden), the sequence of events that follow only drag the movie into an abyss of endless boredom, with a mere chuckle here and there for good measure. It's not so much the story that causes the problem; the beginning shows promise, especially through the performances of its two leads. As John, Chaplin is awkward and almost always in a daze of confusion, and there is a great deal of levity in his endless self-induced calamities. Kidman, hot off the set of last year's "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others," shows her versatility by playing the femme fatale in a most mystifying and quiescent manner. But even these two fine actors cannot bring to light the mysteries surrounding their characters. And no, I'm not referring to the mystery the movie sets forth as to who Nadia really is; what I'm talking about is a look at their motivations, their inner drives, what makes them do the things they do. Why does Nadia scam men out of money? Why does John feel he has to help this woman after he finds out she is pregnant (even though it's not his child)? In essence, the story of "Birthday Girl" is a lot like opening your a birthday gift which turns out to be a big package of socks. You put a smile on your face, hoping the next present will be something you've anticipated, and it is a mere package of underwear. I spent the whole time waiting for something to happen that would spark the film to life, but alas, the moments of humor and slight intensity are few and far between. Happy Birthday? Maybe next year.
Rating:
Summary: Nicole Kidman Rocks!
Review: Nicole Kidman does it again, for the 3rd time in a row! Birthday girl is excellent and totally unpredictable...it's a great ride! Go see it!
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