PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW


The business of a casting agent is often an odd one, I suppose; consider this film, in which three Russian characters are portrayed by an Australian and two Frenchmen. To give Nicole Kidman, Vincent Cassel, and Mathieu Kassovitz their due, if I didn't know they weren't Russian, I wouldn't have guessed it. Kidman (the Aussie in the bunch), playing a dark-tressed mail-order bride, is particularly convincing—but then again, my idea of being really convincing would have been for her to say, "Moose and squirrel must die," so there you have it. Birthday Girl is a quirky but minor romantic comedy–thriller enacted by an energetic cast (Ben Chaplin turns out a very self-effacing portrayal as the milque toast who purchases the mail-order bride and who is distressed to learn that she smokes and doesn't speak English) that can't quite compensate for its slightness. To its credit, the story line (cowritten by director Jez Butterworth and Tom Butterworth) takes some welcome detours before settling on its inevitable conclusion. But the gameness of the cast aside, the whole enterprise has a slightly enervated feel, particularly when it shifts gears to become something of a caper film and starts mining the cheesy tastes of its Russian would-be gangsters for humor. Still, if one enjoys the idea of being in thrall to Kidman for 80 minutes or so, Birthday Girl is hardly to be deplored.