Birth

Nicole Kidman plays Anna, a woman whose husband has died 10 years earlier. On the night of her engagement to another man, a 10-year-old boy with the same name as her dead spouse appears and claims to be him, reincarnated. From there, weirdness ensues as Anna begins a romantic relationship with this boy. This film is shot in a beautiful, Kubrick-like style, and is very smart in its sparing use of music. Unfortunately, Cameron Bright, who plays the young boy, is awful, and the movie is too slow and self-involved for its own good. Much is redeemed late in the film when a major plot twist occurs, and the cleverness of the screenwriter is shown by how carefully this twist has been set up. Still, it’s probably too little, too late, which is too bad, because there’s some real intelligence behind this.